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Chapter Text

Hiccup dreams of his capture every night, of seeing Toothless strung up from the wall and having no idea how he was going to get either of them out of there. It worked but what if it hadn’t? And even though it did, it… He can never get his mind off of it.

Especially not with the constant hanging knowledge that the Outcasts are going to be coming. All of Berk has been on high alert, preparing for the attack ever since. Berk haven’t been this close to an all-out war in… years and even when they were, it certainly never related so much to Hiccup himself. And Alvin probably knows how to train dragons now too, because of him. And when the attacks come, any of his friends could get hurt. Toothless could get hurt again. It… He can’t stop thinking.

Their preparations are going fairly well, up until the news Hiccup has to take to all his friends in the arena today.

“We have a problem,” Hiccup says with a sigh, as he enters late.

Hannibal, Judith, and Colette look at him when he comes in. He sees the lingering traces of worry in their eyes – well, pretty much every time they look at him. He doesn’t mean to be quite so quiet and withdrawn lately, but he can never stop thinking and he knows they can see it.

He was there for hours. On the boat, on Outcast Island, then in the dungeon as he tried fruitlessly to pick the lock, then dig his way out. It… isn’t something he can just forget. Alvin tricked him so thoroughly.

“Problem being?” Hannibal asks with a frown, “Other than, you know… everything?”

“My dad is grounding all the dragons,” Hiccup finishes.

“What?!” Colette yelps, eyes widening.

“And you agreed?” Astrid demands, instantly indignant, “Just like that?”

As if he wanted to? He tried to argue about it and as usual, his dad didn’t listen to anything he has to say. Hiccup can understand why this time, but it’s going to make everything so much harder, not easier. “What other choice did I have? He's the chief, who also happens to be my incredibly overprotective father.”

“Yeah,” Judith agrees with a shrug. “Stoick never really listens to Hiccup. Or any of us.”

Astrid huffs. “Well, we have to get him to change his mind.”

“Stoick the Vast? Um, good luck with that,” Fishlegs says flatly.

“My thoughts exactly,” Colette agrees, frowning.

“So, what am I supposed to do with Hookfang if he can't fly?” Snotlout whines, “You know what happens when his inner warrior is caged up?” Hookfang swings around, smacking Snotlout clear across the arena with his burning tail.  “That!” Snotlout grumbles as he picks himself back up, “That is what happens.”

“Whoa,” Tuffnut crows gleefully, “We should have caged his inner warrior a long time ago. That was awesome!”

“Yeah,” Ruffnut agrees, smirking.

Hannibal sighs, pointedly turning away from the others’ antics. “Well, what did you do to prepare for attacks before we had dragons?”

“I don’t know because back then, there were only dragon attacks,” Snotlout replies grouchily.

That’s the thing, really. Hiccup remembers dragon attacks well. The fighting was constant and deadly, and he nearly got himself killed more times than he could count but that still wasn’t a threat like this.

Dragons were, at the end, animals. These are people with deadly minds and creativity, bound on destroying his home out of some twisted form of vengeance. Alvin, likely backed by some of the most deadly and wild dragon types. Yeah, Hiccup is admittedly terrified.

“Well, you had fires to put out, right?” Hannibal asks.

“That was our primary job,” Astrid agrees, looking between the twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs. Back when Hiccup wasn’t one of them. It’s almost strange sometimes, to think about that time and a time when Hannibal, Colette, and Judith weren’t here.

They’ve been here almost as long as Hiccup’s life even mattered.

“Filling water buckets for the inevitable fires is still going to be important,” Hannibal points out.

“Meatlug and I would go to collect water except we can’t,” Fishlegs offers.

Colette lets out a startled laugh. “Point,” she agrees.

Yeah, they do have a point and that’s exactly the problem. This… really isn’t going to work.

“We really need to get your dad to change his mind,” Astrid says.

“I think we just got down talking about how that’s never going to work,” Colette reminds.

“How are we supposed to see an Outcast attack coming if we can’t use dragons?” Judith asks, “I mean, did he ever think about that?”

“I was trying to tell him,” Hiccup replies with a sigh. He has no idea what to do about it either.

“What if we talked to him together?” Hannibal proposes, “Tried to convince him of all the reasons this doesn’t make sense?”

Yeah, they could, but he’s not sure Stoick would have the patience for that right now and he doesn’t want to make things worse and nor does he want to risk getting his friends in trouble either. “Look, I know this is going to be hard, but I'll keep working on my dad, and hopefully he'll change his mind,” Hiccup says finally. “Just give me until morning. I’ll figure something out.”

“Alright,” Colette agrees, patting his arm in encouragement.

“And if you need backup, we’ll drop by,” Judith promises.

He offers her a tiny smile in gratitude, even if he doesn’t actually plan on doing that. He’ll just try to think of something.

***

Toothless isn’t happy about being grounded like this. He’s growing increasingly restless and with the comments Astrid and then Gobber keeps dropping about it, Hiccup finally just… caves. Even if he knows this might not be a good idea. But at least the late-night flying when no one else is around gives him a few ideas.

It’s a good feeling. He already couldn’t dare go flying right after they got back to Berk, but now that Bork Week is over, all attention is focusing on the inevitable war.

Hiccup can’t help feeling like he failed. He left Mildew there. Alvin has access to everything he needs to know, and Hiccup has to do something to fix it. Besides, dragons are far more effective than ships. They watch from Berk itself, they won’t see an attack from a distance until morning.

He can’t let battle reach the shores of his home.

Even if he feels completely dead on his feet the next morning, not that he wouldn’t have anyway. He… has a really hard time sleeping now.

“You look like the dead,” Colette remarks, as she and the dragon shifters drop over the next morning.

Hiccup offers her a tired smile.

“Not sleeping again?” Hannibal asks, patting his shoulder.

“Well, I was working on this,” Hiccup offers, holding up his shield, which he did spent late into the night working on.

“Ooh,” Colette says, leaning over it, “Nice.”

“Fancy,” Judith agrees with a small smile.

“And I gave it a few extra features,” Hiccup adds, swinging it around to show them, “But we’re going to be late for the Academy if we don’t start the walk.” Because they have to walk the entire way there now. He keeps forgetting that.

“There’s not much rush to get to the Academy right now, is there?” Judith asks.

“I actually had an idea about that,” Hiccup replies, and he really isn’t sure about this, but he doesn’t really have any better ideas either. “What if we had a Dragon Flight Club at night?”

All three of them light up instantly. “You mean we do it illegally?” Colette asks, with far too much glee.

“Yes,” Hiccup agrees, if she’s going to spell it out that bluntly, “But we need to remember that the first rule about the Dragon Flight Club is that there is no Dragon Flight Club, and we’ll need to make sure everyone else is in and understands the rule.”

“Sounds good to me,” Judith replies.

The bigger problem is going to be making sure Snotlout and the twins don’t say anything they aren’t supposed to, and actually… “I don’t know what you want to do about you two,” Hiccup says, “You’ll be visible at night.”

Hannibal frowns, looking thoughtful. “I could just not shift.”

“Or,” Judith says, perking up with a ridiculous smile, “We could disguise ourselves in black wool. But that might look really suspicious, going all over Berk borrowing black wool.”

Hiccup laughs a little, despite everything. “Yeah, that would.”

Hannibal snorts. “I don’t want to think about how uncomfortable that would be.”

“Well, it could work,” Colette offers gleefully.

“Maybe just shouldn’t shift,” Judith concedes, “I’ve gone without flying for long times before.”

Hiccup nods his agreement. It’s… not the best, but it’s all they can do right now. Now, time to make sure everyone else is on board with this.

***

Having dragon hunters after him all his life still somehow doesn’t mean Hannibal is prepared for the impending war. There’s a constant tension in the air and it’s… exhausting. Hannibal’s worried. He can’t stop thinking about the last time someone threated someone he knew and how that ended for everyone around him. Yeah, he’s been growing better at controlling his powers, but… what if something happened again? He doesn’t think it would.

He didn’t think it would last time, either.

And that’s not the only thing he’s afraid of. Hiccup is so… withdrawn. Broody. It’s so not him, even despite everything he went through before they first met him. But now he’s…

Hannibal doesn’t know the details of what happened to him or Toothless, but he’s worried about both of them. And for the chance that they could get hurt again. Anyone in his… new family could hurt here in whatever’s coming.

He tries not to let himself brood on it too much, focusing on the endless training and battle preparation they’re doing instead.

Hiccup and Judith are trying to give everyone instructions about resisting interrogation. It’s… going as well as can be imagined.

“Alvin will do a lot worse than lock you in a dark room,” Hiccup says. His face is weighted as he says that. Hannibal still has questions.

“Yeah,” Judith cuts in, “Like withholding food and water. Or causing physical pain – “

“Pain?” Tuffnut asks, piping up, “Why’s that scary?”

“Yeah, why would to be?” Ruff agrees, punching Tuff in the side.

“Ow!” he yelps, “Yeah, that’s what I mean. Like slapping and dislocated kneecaps and a rock to the face – “

Ruffnut goes to pick up a rock to throw in his face and Hannibal just facepalms. Really doesn’t want to know if the rock hits its mark when she throws it.  “Well,” Hannibal says flatly, “When you’re captured, you and your captor aren’t going both be laughing about what’s happening, so keep that in mind.”

“The kneecap was still awesome,” Tuffnut insists.

“How would you even walk?” Colette asks.

Hiccup sighs from the front of the room. “Guys, can we focus?”

“Hey,” Judith pipes up, “I just got an idea. What if we try to simulate out actual capture scenarios?”

“We did try that, with Fishlegs,” Hiccup reminds.

“And he got all Guppylegs,” says Tuffnut, whatever that even means.

“What I mean,” Judith insists, “Is something more elaborate? We lock a few of us up, have some people pretend to be guards, have someone as a rescue person, and someone to watch and make sure everyone’s playing fair.”

Hiccup perks up. “I can think of just the place.”

***

They try using Ruff and Tuff’s dark soggy place a couple times, but it doesn’t go the greatest. Someone suggests using Berk’s real prison. Hiccup still can’t believe he got his dad to agree to that.

“We can use it,” Hiccup says, “So long as we don’t turn it into a playpen, in my dad’s words.”

“Hey,” Colette objects, “I think we have the right to after how we got locked in here, even if that was half a year ago.”

Yeah, he still can’t believe that happened sometimes. They’ve… come so far from then.  He almost ran away from Berk with them, and he has no idea where they would’ve ended up if they had done that. No use thinking about it. All that is… Well, he prefers not to think about that and anything that happened with his dad that day, at all.

“Let’s get started,” Hiccup advises.

***

Hiccup has no idea how he got put on guard duty first but after his brief check of the Ruffnut and Tuffnut for “weapons”, he has put them both in the cell, lock the door, and wait.

And really hope they’re not going to turn this into a game and instead, do something serious.

“Hey,” Ruffnut whispers loudly, “I have the key.”

What? They got the key from him? He’s… actually impressed. He didn’t notice that.

“Give it to me!” Tuffnut says, trying to reach for it.

“What – no, I got it!” Ruffnut snaps back.

“Guys, I can totally hear you,” Hiccup calls. Oops. Probably bad guard impersonation, but whatever.

The twins don’t even seem to hear him. “Give it to me!” Tuffnut demands again.

“No,” Ruffnut argues as they start pushing and shoving.

There’s a clang a few seconds later and Hiccup just facepalms when he sees the key hitting the floor a short distance outside the prison cell, and very obviously still locked door.

Well, they won’t be getting out of there with that plan. And it’s not looking like they have any other plan. Aside from Tuffnut trying to dig through the floor with his bare hands and Ruffnut making fun of him the whole time.

Hiccup finally caves in and just lets them out.

And has to grudgingly agree when some of the others insist he should be taken off guard duty. Yeah, he won’t hafta play the guard role in real life, anyway. He’s… usually the prisoner.

***

Hiccup gets put on making sure no one’s cheating duty next – and he’ll admit it’s a little funny to watch Colette pretending to be a guard and capturing Fishlegs and Hannibal.

“Alright, tie yourselves up,” Colette snips, smirking.

Hannibal just starts laughing like that phrase has some kind of meaning.

But really, Hiccup’s beginning to get used to his friends saying very strange things that seem to have meaning to only each other.

“Why would I do that?” Fishlegs asks, blinking at her.

“Uh,” Colette supplies, waving them both into the cell and closing the door, “Thunderbolts reference. Never mind.”

Hannibal snorts.

“Thunderbolts?” Fishlegs repeats, sounding befuddled, “What does that mean?”

Yeah, Hiccup’s wondering that, too.

“I should probably tell you later, you know because you’re supposed to be my prisoners right now.” Colette drops her voice to a fake attempt at sounding deep – she actually just sounds terrible. “So don’t try to escape or anything.”

Hiccup can’t help laughing even if it always fades fast when he remembers why they’re doing all this.

Well, at least Hannibal and Fishlegs come up with a much more realistic plan at getting out of their cell and it actually works.

***

They manage to run a few of the prison simulations a day and Hiccup thinks it’s going pretty well, all things considered. Between that and building up defenses and calling naps during the day when no one’s paying attention, so they’ll be ready for the late-night flights, they’re all busy non-stop. And at least it usually means that when he actually does sleep, he’s too exhausted to dream.

They’re out flying for another night, with Hannibal riding with Astrid, Judith riding with Snotlout, and Colette riding with Hiccup. There hasn’t been anything out in the water, at least, and right now, Hiccup’s just glad that Toothless gets to be out flying.

“Hey, Hiccup,” Tuffnut pipes up suddenly.

“Yes?”

“When did your dad join Dragon Flight Club?”

His heart skips a beat. What? “He didn’t?”

“Oh, weird, 'cause he's right there,” Tuffnut says, pointing.

Hiccup looks down, to see Stoick flying right below them. Oh. Oh no. “What the – ” This is bad. Very, very bad. Why did he never consider – “Quick!” he orders, heart pounding, “Evasive cloud maneuvers!” They cannot get caught at this. His dad is going to be very unhappy, to say the least, and Hiccup doesn’t care to find out if he’ll take some other measures to make sure they can’t pull something like this again.

All the dragons scramble, scattering up into the clouds.

At least, all but the twins who are now hanging upside down from Barf and Belch, with their heads below the cloud level.

“What are you two doing?” Astrid demands.

“We can't see in the clouds!” Tuffnut whines.

“Yeah! It's too cloudy!” Ruffnut agrees, as though that wasn’t the point of being in the clouds in the first place.

“We’re up in the sky. There’s nothing to see,” Colette argues.

“We can’t fly like this,” Ruffnut argues.

Oh, great. This is really not what they need to be dealing with right now. “Uh, you guys, if your heads are out of the clouds, my dad can see you!” Hiccup asks. He can’t see where Stoick is through the clouds right now and he thinks he’d be too nervous to look down anyway even if he could. They’re about to get caught and the twins aren’t even –

“Uh, not going to disagree with you, there,” Tuffnut yelps, sounding a little panicked.

Barf and Belch jerks upwards into the clouds but there’s no way it’s not too late. Down below, he hears Stoick yelling for them.

So much for that.

Okay, think. “Um, alright, guys, split up, head home and, please, keep the dragons out of sight,” Hiccup orders breathlessly.

They all scatter but it’s still not fast enough for Hiccup to avoid catching sight of Thornado flying up into the clouds after them.

Hiccup doesn’t think he’s flown back to Berk too fast ever. He, Astrid, and Snotlout fly briefly over the dragon shifters’ house to drop off Hannibal, Judith, and Colette before he and Toothless dive back through their bedroom window and Hiccup leaps into bed, diving under the blanket. He’s definitely never gone to bed this fast in his life.

“This never happened,” he mutters, face pressed against his pillow.

Still doesn’t do much to calm his pounding heart. They’re definitely going to be hearing about this. And he’s pretty sure it’s not going to be a pleasant conversation.

Uhhh, this isn’t good this isn’t good this isn’t –

***

Hiccup tries to act perfectly normally the next morning, while also doing his best to avoid Stoick. His dad is definitely giving him some pointed glances, but he dodges all questions as best he can and tries to play perfectly normal and act as helpful as possible around town. He can see the others all doing the same and they’re all just avoiding each other a little bit, probably as nervous as he is to mention what happened.

They don’t talk to each other again until that evening, when they sneak to the arena together.

“So, that was close,” Colette says nervously, looking around.

“Too close,” Fishlegs interrupts panickily, “The chief caught me.”

Hiccup’s gut drops. “And?” he asks, instantly wary.

“He and Gobber wouldn’t stop asking questions. He put the screws to me. I thought I was gonna crack especially when the lights went out, but I held firm. Because I know the first rule of Dragon Flight Club is there is no Dragon Flight Club,” Fishlegs says, clearly still shaken. Hiccup doesn’t blame him. Getting cornered by his dad is not fun.

But seriously, he did amazing. Stoick can be… nerve-rattling even for Hiccup, and he’s his dad.

“Great, not that again,” Tuffnut groans as Ruffnut rolls her eyes in exasperated agreement.

“You did great, Fishlegs,” Hiccup promises.

“So what are we doing tonight?” Ruffnut asks impatiently.

“Nothing,” Hiccup replies immediately.

“That doesn’t sound fun at all,” Tuffnut whines.

“Look, my dad is onto us. It’s important that we lay low until this blows over,” he replies firmly. “We need to be… invisible.”

“Yeah, unless everyone’s hoping to get in trouble,” Colette agrees. “I mean, I know it’s gonna be annoying but…”

“More than annoying,” Tuffnut grumbles.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Snotlout’s voice suddenly yells from behind them as he comes crashing through the arena door, riding Hookfang who’s burning – and would definitely have been seen all over the village. “You guys!”

Great. Because this couldn’t get any worse?

“Snotlout,” Hiccup nearly groans, hand pressed to his head, “What did I tell you? No dragons.” Now he’s really going to be in for it because there’s no way people aren’t talking about that, assuming his dad isn’t keeping an eye on them right now and they haven’t noticed it yet. And let’s not forget the no flying rule.

“Yeah,” Tuffnut agrees, “Even I knew that.”

“And now’s really not a good time for rule breaking,” Judith agrees.

“So, what’s so important anyway?” Hiccup sighs.

“Let’s just say I may have saved this entire island,” Snotlout replies.

“What happened?” Colette asks, frowning.

“Alvin and the Outcasts are attacking as we speak.”

Alvin’s here. Right now. Already? Hiccup shouldn’t be surprised. It still sends a jolt of fear through him. They’ve trained for this but that doesn’t mean they’re ready. But they’ll probably never be more ready than they are right now. “I’ll go warn my dad,” Hiccup says, running for Toothless, “All of you, get ready.”

***

They’re at war. Having dragon hunters after you isn’t near the same and yes, Hannibal’s scared. He shapeshifts to his dragon form, flying out with the rest of the dragons to Berk’s coast. The one really downside to being a sun dragon is that he’s sticking out like a literal light bulb against the dark sky, even if he’s not turning his glow up. Well, at least it should keep the Outcasts’ attention more off the others?

“I’m going to draw their first line of fire,” Stoick calls, “When they’re reloading, you attack. But not before.”

Hiccup nods firmly.

Hannibal can’t help noticing with a tiny bit of pride with how much he’s grown. He’s really become a leader himself, despite how young he is. Hannibal just wishes it didn’t come with so much underlying heaviness. It hurts seeing Hiccup… well, so old.

They finally get out near the water and he sees the Outcast boats below. This is really happening.

The boulders start coming next and Thornado blasts a wave of sound down at them. Everyone scrambles for cover, but the second round of boulders runs a second later.

“Now, Hiccup!” Stoick calls as they start reloading again.

Toothless fires first, plasma blast tearing through a sail on the ship. All the other dragons that shoot fire are next.

And there’s… actually nothing Hannibal can really do. He doesn’t know how to control his blasts properly. He’d just risk incinerating everybody. But he doesn’t want to just do nothing either.

Judith dives downwards, breathing sleep at the Outcasts on the ship. A few of them drop and she swoops away.

Well, if nothing else, Hannibal can join the fight up close and personal. He swoops by, tail smacking a few people down and then rips his way through a sail as he goes back up, narrowly dodging a few flying arrows.

And then he hears dragons shrieking behind him and whirls around as a group of Changewings come flying out of a hold on one of the Outcasts ships.

“We can’t let them get back to Berk,” Fishlegs calls panickily, as the Changewings fly past, towards the island, “If they go into town, they’ll tear Berk apart and we won’t be able to see them.”

Great.

Hannibal swoops around, following as the all the riders so the same and speed to the front of the Changewings, trying to turn them away from Berk. Except of course, they start spitting acid. Hannibal dives out of the way, breathing a wave of heat at one – and gets another acid spray for his efforts. At least it turned the Changewing away but only right now.

But it actually seems like they’re all liking him the most, thanks to his brilliance. And he really doesn’t want to find out what that acid would feel like, hitting his scales.

“Hannibal, can you and the others herd the Changewings back to Changewing island?” Hiccup calls. “And make sure they don’t head back this way! I’m going to help my dad.”

Hannibal growls affirmatively, over Astrid’s “Got it!”

He doesn’t want to leave Hiccup here alone, but these dragons are the worst threat right now and that’s what they need to focus on.

Now that they’re actually herding the Changewings out in the open, it’s easier to avoid their acid and to get them all flying in the right direction. Once their island comes into view, all of them take off, scattering for the island themselves.

“That went better than I thought,” Colette says, still a little breathless.

“Can we just get out of here?” Fishlegs asks, not looking relieved in the slightest. Hannibal doesn’t blame him. The Changewings are terrifying, honestly, and they still have a battle to get back.

“Gladly,” Astrid calls as they swing and fly back to berk.

Hannibal doesn’t breathe a sigh of relief until he sees that the boats along the coast are gone. The fight is over, for now, at least.

They find Hiccup waiting back at the arena. Hannibal pauses somewhere more concealed outside to shift back, going inside as a person.

Hiccup still looks worried when he catches up. “Something about this doesn’t seem right.”

“You mean the tininess of the attack?” Colette asks, frowning.

“Yes.”

He… does have a point. “Maybe they’re testing our defenses,” Hannibal suggests.

“Maybe,” Hiccup says, frowning a little.

“We’ll just have to stay on guard,” Judith speaks in everyone’s mind. She’s still in her dragon form, sitting next to Toothless.

“No one’s doubting that,” Astrid says.

“What about just staying here for the night?” Colette suggests, looking around. “It’s already late.”

Hannibal is pretty sure that’s not the real reason for her suggestion. He doesn’t want to be alone with just her and Judith tonight, either. He doesn’t want to let Hiccup out of his sight, actually, and being with the others would be nice, too.

No one has any objections, so they end up curling up in a massive human and dragon pile. At least that way, he can stay near Colette and Hiccup at once, with Judith and Toothless curling around them all protectively. All the other riders are right nearby, their dragons curled up next to them – even Snotlout and Hookfang.

It’s nice to have them all here. The only way anything feels remotely safer now, when Hannibal knows way inside that it could be only a matter of hours before the next attack comes. Alvin’s not going to give up, and something doesn’t settle quite right with him, either. Not that he knows anything about battle, and that’s what terrifies him.

Chapter Text

The sound of a Terrible Terror chirping wakes Hiccup the next morning. He’s still curled up against Toothless’ side, though his head somehow ended up on Hannibal’s arm and somewhere in the night he and Colette ended up holding hands.

Judith is already lifting her head, cocking it a little to look at the Terrible Terror in a way that Hiccup’s come to realize means she’s talking to the dragon. The way she’s stiffening, though, has him instantly worried.

“What’s wrong?” Hiccup asks.

“It saw a boat offshore. Outcast boat,” Judith explains in his mind, wings stretching as she stands.

Already? He shouldn’t be surprised. They’re obviously planning something, and Hiccup doesn’t like it. At all. “I’ll tell my dad. The rest of you get ready. We’ll have to go chase it out of here,” Hiccup says.

The others are nodding, already on their feet.

“I’ll have the Terrible Terror keep an eye out,” Judith says in their minds, as Hiccup swings onto Toothless and takes off.

They’re out flying over the water within the hour. Hiccup could appreciate getting to fly out at sunrise more if not for what’s happening. Sure enough, he sees the boat down below but when they try to chase, it’s just gone. They do another sweep over the water and then another and another, but it’s like gone before they can ever pinpoint where it is. And it’s long after sunrise now, the sun rising steadily higher in the sky.

“We missed it,” Snotlout says with a groan.

“It was headed that way. It must’ve outrun us,” Astrid says.

“But that doesn’t even make sense,” Colette argues.

No, it really doesn’t. “How does an Outcast ship outrun our dragons?” Hiccup asks with a sigh, as they land on a nearby sea stack. And now, he sees nothing.

“I don’t understand it either,” Judith agrees, speaking in his mind again, “I’m certain I sense it but then I don’t see it. Maybe it’ s just nerves.”

Right, because she can sense life. He can’t quite imagine what it would be like to be able to feel things like that. But that shouldn’t be something she even could miss-feel, right?

Meatlug finally comes flying up, joining them on the Seastack.

“That’s how we keep missing it,” Snotlout gripes, pointing at Fishlegs.

“Whoo! We were really moving, girl,” Fishlegs is saying as they land, “What'd we miss?”

“It's not what you missed. It's what we all missed!” Snotlout retorts.

Everyone turns to look at Snotlout. Yeah, Hiccup can’t deny that Meatlug not being able to move as fast as the other dragons means they have to move a little slower which may be a problem right now but that doesn’t mean he needs to say that. There’s a thing called sensitivity, though Snotlout has never been one to understand that.

“What?” Snotlout asks, grumpily, “I'm just calling it like I see it. If we didn't have slow and really, really slow holding us back, I don't know, maybe we'd have a chance to actually do what we're supposed to be doing!”

“Snotlout, that's not helping,” Hiccup interrupts firmly. He knows how it is to have people make comments like that about him and he’s not gonna just say nothing in Fishlegs’ defense.

“And a slow dragon might see something the rest of us miss,” Colette pipes up. Which is also a good point. Hiccup would just really like to understand what’s happening here.

“Or it’ll make the rest of us miss something really obvious,” Snotlout retorts.

“Guys, he does have a point,” Fishlegs says.

“Fishlegs – ” Hiccup starts to protest.

“Maybe,” Hannibal interjects, “Fishlegs could go back to Berk and do some scouting there.”

Fishlegs looks nervous. “Maybe,” he still agrees.

“Are you sure about this?” Hiccup asks hesitantly. It’s not ideal, and he doesn’t think this is what Fishlegs wants to be doing at all. he might have a slow dragon, but he does mean a lot to their team. He needs to make sure Fishlegs knows that. And besides, if Alvin did circle around, leaving Fishlegs here alone, well… it could be dangerous.

“Absolutely,” Fishlegs insists.

Hiccup still can’t help thinking that he’s only doing it because of what Snotlout was saying but he doesn’t know what to do about it right now. They don’t have time to wait.

“I can go too, just in case something happens,” Hannibal adds.

Well, that’s better than having Fishlegs go off alone, because he wouldn’t be able to handle it alone if something happened. Hiccup watches them go, unable to stop thinking that there’s something mor he should say but he doesn’t… know what.

The rest of them take off from the sea stack again, circling around. And still nothing.

Would it help if they split up further? Hiccup doesn’t really know. And truth is, he doesn’t really want to have to ask that of the others, when they could get attacked at any moment.  They’ll be strongest if they’re close with each other and he doesn’t know that suggesting splitting up would help anything anyway. None of the others mention it either, so he let sit be as they spend a while longer flying, before they finally give up, heading back for Berk.

***

When they get back, it’s to find Hannibal waiting for them near the shoreline, and Fishlegs and Meatlug are nowhere to be found.

“Did you find the ship?” Hannibal asks. He looks tense, jittery. The way Hiccup and… probably everyone feels constantly now.

“No,” Hiccup says with a sigh, looking around, “Where’s Fishlegs?”

“Down at Gobber’s,” Hannibal replies, “Meatlug was having some kind of… situation?”

“Situation?” Colette repeats.

He shrugs. “Something rock related, I don’t know.”

Well, they might as well drop by to find him. When they get there, it’s to see Fishlegs and Meatlug outside the shop and Gobber doing something inside. “Do you know what this is?” he asks, coming out.

“Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me!” Tuffnut says excitedly, as though what this isn’t perfectly obvious.

But Hiccup’s pretty sure they must be missing something, for Gobber to be asking.

“Um, a sword?” supplies Ruffnut.

“I said don’t tell me!” Tuffnut yells.

“I wasn't telling you. I was telling him,” Ruffnut shoots back but her twin flies at her anyway and they start exchanging punches.

“Not just any sword. Feel it. I made it out of that strange lava Meatlug left in my shop,” Gobber replies, tossing the sword to Astrid who twirls it around, testing it out.

“That’s hardened Gronickle lava?” Hannibal echoes, intrigued.

“I prefer to call it Gronckle Iron. I got tired of waiting for it to cool. You know what I always say, pound it while it's hot. Next thing you know, bing, bang, boom, and I've created this little beauty,” Gobber replies.

“It’s pretty,” Astrid replies, “But too light. Would never hold up in battle.”

“Exactly what I thought. Until I did this,” Gobber replies, taking the sword back and swinging it around, cutting Snotlout’s sword right in half.

…What?

“Whoa,” Colette yelps, staring.

“I didn’t know Gronickle’s could make things like that,” Judith muses. Yeah, Hiccup didn’t either. But that’s so useful. It… could actually help them in a lot of ways if they can make more of it. Maybe even if they can’t. Iron this strong is really the type of thing they need for surprise, reinforce defenses against Alvin.

“Is there any left?” Astrid asks hopefully, “I've been wanting a new dagger.”

“New helmets!” the twins exclaim in unison.

“Ours are pretty banged-up... from banging... them,” Ruffnut adds as they bang hangs and then drop to the ground, distantly mumbling about seeing stars.

“Yeah, I wonder why that would be,” Hannibal deadpans. Hiccup tries not to even look. It makes his own head hurt just to think about.

“Yep, it'd go nice on that fancy new shield of yours,” Gobber comments, turning to Hiccup and ignoring the twins entirely.

“Exactly what I was thinking. It could make it stronger and lighter,” Hiccup agrees, perking up. And that would make it much easier for him to carry around all the time. Aaand something anyone he’s fighting won’t see coming, which they also really need right now.

“Excuse me,” Snotlout grumbles, “Why don't you start by making me a new sword?”

“Why don't you start by getting in line?” Gobber asks, “The whole town is going to be hearing about this.”

“Wait,” Judith protests, stepping forwards, “I’m not sure letting the whole town know about this is a good idea.”

“What do you mean?” Gobber objects.

“It’s just… if people hear about this, if Alvin hears about this, what do you think would happen?” she asks, “We could end up getting this used against Berk. Even if we don’t have any more traitors on Berk, people still talk. The word will spread. And I think that’s the last thing we need right now.”

She… has a good point. Hiccup can’t believe he didn’t consider that himself.

Gobber seems thoughtful. “I’ll have a word with the chief about that. And maybe you can each get something out of this.”

***

They get called out on another scouting mission hardly any time later and they’re back to going in circles again, even without Fishlegs being there. Hiccup’s only getting more worried.

“I don’t want to suggest this,” Hannibal says, where he’s sitting on Judith’s back behind Colette, “But maybe we do need to split up.”

Maybe.

“Alright,” Hiccup replies, “Ruff, Tuff, you can come with me. Snotlout, Judith, Astrid, you can take the other way.”

They nod, breaking off and going opposite directions, circling over the water.

And then Hiccup finally sees it - there’s an Outcast boat circling behind a sea stack, but it can’t avoid them both at once. Is that what they’ve been doing all this time?

“Found them,” Hiccup calls, diving forwards.

He can see Savage from here and the arrows coming seconds later.  He dives aside and the twins cackle gleefully as Barf spits out gas and they explode it. It rips through the sail and then the other group of dragons comes circling around. Hookfang fires a fire blast, tearing through the side of the boat, and between Stormfly and Toothless, they finish the rest of the boat off quickly enough, leaving it sinking.

“Hopefully that’s going to be the last we see of those,” Astrid says, as they turn away.

Hopefully.

But Hiccup knows better than to think that. Whatever the Outcasts’ plan is, they’re going to be back.

And also, Hiccup can’t help thinking, they really could have used Meatlug and Fishlegs out there.  They went over the same sea stack over and over again because they didn’t have anyone going in the back, showing them what area they already covered. And… instead, Fishlegs is just back on Berk by himself, and there’s no way he’s not hurt by what Snotlout was saying, even if he’s not acting like it. Hiccup… really needs to talk to him.

***

Once they’re back from the attack, and after Hiccup briefly stops by to tell his dad about what happened, they head to Gobber’s shop to see what’s happening with the Gronickle iron.

Fishlegs is sitting by Meatlug, looking distinctly disappointed, as Gobber works on forging something.

“All the Gronickle iron here is all there’s going to be,” Gobber tells them as they enter.

“Why?” Hiccup asks, a little confused.

“I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know how to recreate it,” Fishlegs replies dejectedly.

…oh.

Not the greatest news but at least they have something.

“But I was still able to make you all a bit of what you asked for,” Gobber reassures, “And there’ll still be some extra.”

He holds up axes for Astrid and Hannibal, who are quick to claim them, trading a smile with each other.

He gives Snotlout, Judith, and Fishlegs each a sword, Colette gets a group daggers and some iron-tipped arrows.

“Use those carefully. We won’t be able to make more,” Gobber tells her.

“I will,” Colette chirps.

“And these are for you,” Gobber finishes, holding up a mace for each of the twins.

They snatch them away gleefully.

“Hey, mace,” Tuffnut croons, as he practically hugs the thing, “You wanna come home with me, don't you?” He wiggles the thing in his face. “Yes, I do. Tuffnut. I want to needlessly destroy other people’s property with you.” Tuffnut grins. “Oh, Macey. You get me.”

Hiccup just very pointedly ignores that interaction entirely. “Do not,” he interrupts quickly, before the twins can start fighting with them, “Hit each other with those.”

“Why not?” Ruffnut asks.

“If you want to try it, I’d suggest practicing on your helmets with them off your heads first,” Hannibal tells them dryly.

The twins jump at each other, snatching each other’s helmets off and putting them on the ground before they swing their maces at them.

And the helmets split clean in two.

“Awesome,” Tuffnut breathes, staring.

Hiccup really, really hopes this isn’t going to be a mistake.

“Now we’re gonna need new helmets,” Ruffnut decides.

“Not of this,” Gobber replies, despite their obvious disappointment, “But I’ll get you your helmets later.”

And Hiccup will still need to work on remaking his shield out of the iron himself later. With a metal this strong, it should be able to withstand just about anything. What they need to top Alvin is something unexpected, and a good series of surprises, whatever those might be. He’s just… worried.

But Alvin and the war can come later. Fishlegs first.

“I really wanted to say sorry for leaving you behind the other day,” Hiccup offers tentatively as he approaches his friend. He already knows Fishlegs is going to try shrugging it off, because he’s so… conflict avoidant driven. Everything about him is trying to dodge argument after argument or anything that might hurt him.

So much like Hiccup himself. He wonders how they knew each other for years and somehow, mutually, never noticed.

They used to be closer when they were younger. Then… Hiccup can’t remember exactly when it started, but Fishlegs grew older, and everything started changing. He remembers the other kids, Snotlout especially, had started picking on him for spending any time with Hiccup at all, and they finally just… grew apart. Then Fishlegs went on to be a more normal Viking despite his differences from the norm, and Hiccup didn’t. Fishlegs was never a fighter, but he still got to train. Hiccup never got the chance. He’s glad now, but it doesn’t change the years he missed.

Fishlegs, for as conflict avoidant as he’s always been, had just caved, and they’d drifted apart.

“Hiccup,” he protests. “I did offer.”

“I know,” he assures. “I know, but I still should have… I mean, you are one of us. We could have used your help out there.”

“It’s okay, Hiccup. Really,” Fishlegs tries reassuring, though Hiccup knows full well he’s just trying to tone down. He was hurt. Really. And Hiccup feels awful for that. He’d been so afraid, so worried about Alvin he’d stopped thinking about anything else. Alvin is something he’s never been able to stop thinking about.

Berk is going to be at war soon. They really already are. Hiccup is throwing his all into preparing, and he’s… losing track of other important things. And it’s wrong for his friends to take the brunt of that, especially Fishlegs.

It’s not his fault if Meatlug is a bit slow. Everyone knows Gronkles also have more endurance than your average dragon.

“It’s not,” he argues. “Not really. I’m so focused on Alvin I’m losing track of other important things, too. Because for as cool as this new iron is, we’re gonna need you and Meatlug up in the air with us. We would even if we knew how to make more. And yeah, maybe Alvin might circle past us to go after Berk someday, but you shouldn’t have to fight that off alone, anyway.”

Fishlegs’ smile is honestly real. “Thank you, Hiccup.” He reaches for Meatlug. “You hear that, girl? They need us.”

The Gronckle in question lets out a happy purr, licking his cheek. She’s so sweet.

“Alright,” Hiccup settles on, climbing onto Toothless’s back again. “How about we go out for another flight check, just in case?”

Fishlegs comes.

It’s not the same feeling without all of them together, Hiccup realizes. He knew that. He’s always known that, but maybe the riders needed this as another final reminder of how they all play a part on the team.

Chapter Text

“Okay, gang, over here,” Hiccup calls, pointing over the board he and Astrid drew up for the training session of the day. “Tomorrow's training mission was actually Astrid’s idea, so I will let her explain it.”

The ripple of annoyance that immediately runs through the other assembled riders is instant and irritated. “What?” Astrid asks defensively.

“Your training missions are so hard!” Fishlegs whines.

“They are not,” Astrid says flatly.

“Hand-to-Claw Combat?” Fishlegs protests, raising his still bandaged hand for Meatlug to lick.

“Spine-Dodging?” Snotlout adds.

“That one was fun,” Judith interrupts.

“Hot Lava-Swimming?” Tuffnut offers.

“We never did that,” Astrid says flatly.

“Yeah, but you should've,” Tuff replies seriously. “Way better than Hand-to-Claw Combat.” Ugh. Hiccup is not thinking about that – he knows what being set on fire feels like, thank you, and it’s… very unpleasant.

“Well, this mission is easy,” Astrid replies, motioning to the map. “Dragon Island. You just have to go from this beach on the East side to this cave on the West side. At night. With no camping gear. And no dragons.”

The angry muttering is pretty expected.

“What?! That's crazy! What's the point?!” Snotlout complains.

“You know I can’t actually put my dragon away, right?” Judith asks, patting her chest.

“To work on our stealth skills and our Wild Dragon Defense,” Astrid explains.

“She’s right,” Hiccup intervenes before someone can get slaughtered. “We all know how strong we are with our dragons, but we have to be able to survive and defend ourselves if we ever get separated from them.”

Ruffnut moans and facepalms. Colette groans. “Tell me we’re bringing our weapons, at least?” she requests.

“You can bring as many shields and things as you want,” Astrid replies, “As long as you actually use those in battle.”

Yeah. Honestly, Colette’s the one Hiccup’s worried about – she hasn’t even gone through the amount of training he has, which is saying something. She’s… normal. Futuristic normal, apparently, not Viking normal. Which… also comes with casualty risk.

Hopefully a few people will actually learn something from this?

***

“Okay, one of us is gonna have to skip the drill and take the dragons to the cave on the other side of the island. That way, they won't try and help us,” Hiccup explains, lantern in hand.

Judith nods at the logic – it makes sense. She knows none of their dragons would be willing to sit out with their riders in danger. She’s gonna have a hard time not worrying about them, too. Fishlegs immediately tries to offer, but Tuffnut cuts him off.

“But I have way more dragon knowledge!” Fishlegs protests.

“Yeah – from a book! But I ... I feel them…” Tuff pats his chest. “In here. Wait, where is it? In…” He pats his stomach instead. “In here! Yeah. In my stomach. Besides, I did say “Me” first!”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but, uh, Tuffnut is right,” Hiccup decides.

“Really?” Judith asks pointedly at all the agreeing wary looks being aimed at Hiccup.

“No one can argue with Fishleg’s dragon knowledge,” Hiccup replies, “But if Alvin attacks with wild dragons, we all need to be able to face them! Any time of the day or night. On our own, without help. That’s why I didn’t send Hannibal or Judith. They’re dragons. But you need to know how to interact with other wild dragons, too. You’re not always going to be able to shift or use your abilities. And at least if Ruff goes through this, her and Tuff share a dragon.”

“I hate it when you make sense,” Fishlegs complains miserably as they start heading off. Tuff herds the dragons away reluctantly, and Judith gives Toothless a goodbye pat. He returns it with a gentle purr and nudge before pattering away, purring at Colette who added some petting of her own.

It’s going to be so hard for him to be without Hiccup. Those two never go anywhere without each other. They’re literally connected, and neither of them can function without the other. It’s gonna be hardest for them.

Hiccup shoos them into the forest, especially Fishlegs who keeps lingering in the back, and they split up.

Despite being Dragon Island, Judith doesn’t see that many dragons. Most of them probably found shelter in caves, not just the woods, though she does run into a Deadly Nadder. Despite the said dragon’s initial wariness and aggression, it doesn’t attack, so she settles down for a friendly chat instead.

Who knew you could get so much info just from talking to dragons?

***

Colette’s never been alone in a dark forest at night. It’s… unnerving with all the distant dragon sounds. They’re wild dragons. It’s sort of like large wildcats. They could hurt even without meaning to. But at least dragons are cool. They’re not that hard to connect to.

She should be fine, right? Sure, she doesn’t have a dragon of her own, but she’s listened to Hiccup’s dragon classes, Fishleg’s dragon tips, helped with… a lot of things. She won’t be eaten – right?

…right?

There’s a cave up ahead. It looks… disturbed? Sort of. There are tracks nearby anyway, and Colette slowly moves closer. Scorch marks – a dragon fight? Or something. It makes her hair stand on end, but Colette slowly creeps closer anyway, curiosity getting the better of her sanity. She should probably go, but this is…

Well, what happened here?

She raises her lantern, the flickering flame casting shadows on the wall, a faint, strangled yelp escaping her when she sees the arrows on the walls.

Hunters.

Dragon hunters.

Somebody recently fought a dragon here.

Her gut volts.

The body’s still here. It smells awful, slowly decaying, already attacked by some sort of scavengers, but maybe a… Monstrous Nightmare? It’s hard to say.

The head is gone.

Goodness, the head is gone.

Who hacked off this poor creature’s head and why?! How could someone be so incredibly barbaric?

The body is lying… on a nest?

It’s a nest, yeah. Like a bird nest, just larger, and…

Eggshells.

Whoever killed this thing, she was a female Nightmare.

She died defending her nest. Who were destroyed anyway. The broken shards are lying on the ground, most of the nest crushed, anyway. She doesn’t know if she wants to scream or cry more.

She’s never known violence. Colette has never seen bodies or things destroyed like this. She’s seen a few birds’ nests destroyed that fell out of a tree or something, but never something intentional, deliberate, and so, so…

Horrible.

There’s still one.

Nightmare eggs, despite the dragon’s size, are small, and she carefully pushes away the mother’s leg bone – she’s touching a bone. Something that belonged to a living, breathing, flaming creature. She knows Nightmares. Hookfang was hers before he became Snotlout’s – and carefully lifts the egg into her arms.

She sets her lantern down nearby. She needs an arm for the egg, and she won’t put her shield down, just in case.

Colette has no idea what happened to this thing’s father, if Nightmares know them.

Its mother was murdered for sport, the rest of its siblings crushed. With an axe is her guess from the slash marks.

It’s just… here, left alone in this world, it’s family dead. When it ever hatches, if it even can hatch now, the first things it’ll see and start its life with are the broken, shattered and dead remnants of it’s family.

Nothing deserves that.

Nothing. Well, except the monster that did this. Colette’s typically pretty against violence, but she might make an exception right now.

She knows how it feels to be left alone in this world, with no home and nowhere to go, because that’s exactly how she felt until she met Hiccup and Toothless and Hannibal and Judith. And she’s not going to let this baby grow up alone.

Colette carefully lifts the egg into her arms, cradling it against her chest. It’s not being left here for another mean dragon or that hunter to find it. It’s gonna be safe with her, and she is never, ever putting it down.

Guess this is her first dragon.

***

Terrible Terrors are so easy to tame. Hannibal figured that out the first time he tried – they’re so easy to connect with and so incredibly cat-like. The flock he accidently trips into are very easy to keep quiet, and he slips away as soon as they fall back asleep, carefully backing through the woods just to make sure he didn’t –

And then his back slams into something and he gasps faintly, whirling around, startled.

A high-pitched shriek sounds a foot form his face, and Hannibal jumps again at the sound – Snotlout.

“What is wrong with you?” he asks, heart pounding at an irrationally fast speed, though he’d fiercely deny anyone who called him out on it.

“You startled me!” Snotlout rages. “You have no idea what I’ve been through in this forest!”

“Hi, Hannibal,” Hiccup calls, waving. His lantern is gone, too, with nothing but a shield. Huh. And there’s another figure there, armored, unfamiliar, someone who should definitely not be here. “Wouldya look? It’s Dagur! Who – Who is also out hunting dragons, just like us.”

“Yes!” Snotlout crows excitedly, throwing an arm around Hannibal and Hiccup’s shoulders. “We are Dragon Hunters – out hunting dragons!”

“Hiccup, your definition of alone and mine are very different,” Dagur the Deranged – Hannibal recognizes him now by name – replies flatly, maybe a bit confused. “But perhaps this one can be of more help –”

“Hunt dragons!” Snotlout cheers.

Hannibal kicks him in the hopes of shutting him up. If this guy doesn’t stop running his mouth, they’re done for. This is – not good. Very not good. If Dagur’s here, there will be other people here. He wouldn’t have come alone.

“Yeeouch!” he yelps. “Hey! What was that for!”

“We didn’t come to Dragon Island to go camping,” Hannibal grumbles. “Obviously we’re here to hunt.”

Dagur’s already walking off. Hannibal thinks he’s bored, which is… good? Maybe. “You know, we’re a lot alike, Hiccup,” the boy is rambling as he prowls through the tree line, crossbow aimed at everything in sight. Hannibal was hoping to ignore him, maybe circle around and away to warn the others to call off the exercise, but his distracted irritation instantly piques.

How can Dagur compare himself to Hiccup?

“Really?” Hiccup stutters out. “How – h – how’s that?”

“Well, we’re both born leaders,” he offers. “Sons of chiefs…”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Hiccup admits.

“Who had to be eliminated so we could gain control.”

“Ye – wait – what?” Hiccup yelps, freezing in his tracts. “No. No! My – my Dad hasn’t been eliminated from anything!”

Dagur is so – Hannibal can think of many words to describe this guy, and none of them are good. He’s a dragon hunter. Everyone on Berk used to be, too, so he gets that, but the sheer brutalness still disgusts him. He’d kill anyone without a heartbeat. It’s not just dragons. 

“But he could!” Dagur offers excitedly, as though he weren’t speaking of killing Hiccup’s father. Hannibal may not be overly fond of Stoick, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to condone or accept outright murder. Because this is murder. Dagur’s talking happily about killing the only family member Hiccup has. And he’s not joking, not that murder is a thing to joke about, anyway. “Easily,” Dagur continues. “Just say the word and –”

His crossbow goes off, the arrow tearing right between Hannibal and Snotlout. They both jerk backwards, suppressing instinctive yelps.

“Yeah, that’s… something to think about,” Hiccup mutters as they keep walking.

As they keep walking, a branch behind them crunches. “Oh, hey, Hiccup,” Colette starts, then freezes.

Ah, not good. “Find any dragons to kill yet?” Hannibal asks dryly, falling back to lightly nudge her elbow, frowning when he sees her lack of a lantern. She’s angling her shield just right to hide something she’s keeping tucked close to her chest. He doesn’t know what, but it must be important.

Colette makes a faint, strangled squeak and shakes her head.

“Did you leave anyone back on Berk?” Dagur asks, a little irritated.

“Only the adults,” Hannibal answers dryly over Hiccup’s grumble of “very funny.”

“I – I gotta get this out of here,” Colette whispers, angling her shield just enough to show Hannibal the flash of… a dragon egg? Why is she carrying a dragon egg? Yeah, they need to get that as far from Dagur as possible.

“Warn the others,” Hannibal whispers to her. “Go.”

Colette nods and waits behind, deliberately falling back before hopefully making a break for it. They need to be fast if this is going to go anywhere, and… they need to get the dragons out of here, especially Toothless.

“Ah, which one of your friends is it going to be this time?” Dagur grumbles as a branch up ahead rustles, though Hannibal has an instant, deep and worried feeling. This isn’t a person. It’s… too big and quiet at once, and he smells them.

All the dragons right nearby.

“It’s… hard to say,” Hiccup offers tentatively,

A plasma blast tears through the branches right up ahead, and Hannibal flinches. Toothless snarls lowly, peaking over the top of the sparking branches.

Dagur, with a whoop of glee, lifts his crossbow to fire right at Toothless. Hannibal tenses, but Hiccup dives forwards with a panicked “Wait! I would like to do it.” It’s a nice diversion, but how long? This is Dagur. He’s not gonna wait. They need to get Toothless out.

“I saw him first!” Dagur yells back.

“Yes, but I led you to him,” Hiccup argues, grabbing his crossbow away.

Dagur snatches it back. “But I brought the crossbow! All you brought was that useless ornate shield! Now –” He shoves Hiccup hard enough Hannibal wants to strangle him just for that. “Stand aside.”

Judith dives out of nowhere, tackling Dagur as she swoops by. Hiccup makes a shoo motion to Toothless, who takes off into the trees. “That thing again?” Dagur grumbles as he picks himself up.

“Yeah, that thing again,” Hiccup agrees.

“Never seen a dragon like that before,” Hannibal offers dryly. Dagur is taking off to follow Toothless. This isn’t going well.

“You guys need to find Tuff, get all the dragons, and get out of here,” Hiccup orders in a hushed whisper. “Don’t worry, Dagur won’t hurt me. I’m his ‘brother’.”

Is he –

“I’m your brother,” Hannibal mutters irritated with a sudden streak of abnormal possessiveness. He’s never called Hiccup that before, though he definitely would say he knows him enough to put the term on. The protectiveness, the constant worrying, the doting – Hannibal’s had enough siblings to know those feelings on sight.

It’s not something he cares to share, especially not with Dagur who bears absolutely no respect for Hiccup whatsoever, and takes great glee in shoving him around, and that’s not to mention the knives. Dagur’s so violent with him. He does not get to call Hiccup his brother.

Dagur turns back, flinging an arm around Hiccup’s shoulder and dragging him back. “Come, Hiccup. While the dragon trail is still fresh!”

Can Hannibal please, please, please strangle him? “Well of course they’re fresh. We literally just saw the dragons here,” Hannibal points out dryly.

“I can’t hunt with an entourage. Go back to Berk,” Hiccup calls over his shoulder as Dagur drags him off into the forest. “Leave us to our business.”

“Your friends are an odd bunch,” Dagur is saying in the woods. “And very, very annoying.”

“So I’ve been told,” Hiccup offers weakly.

Snotlout looks wide-eyed at Hannibal. “How are we gonna find our dragons?” he complains. “I mean, they’re –” Hookfang snots steam on his back, and he muffles a shriek.

“Come on,” Hannibal waves him forwards. “We have to move.”

***

Astrid and Fishlegs are instantly freaked out from Colette’s report, though she can’t stop thinking about the nest. Colette saw that. She knows who did it. She’d been so scared when she saw the destruction – it meant someone else was on the island, btu she thought they could call off the mission before running into them? So much for that.

It’s easy to find the others and get the dragons together, ready to fly out, but Toothless is still a problem.

“What’s that you’re holding?” Tuffnut asks, leaning forwards as they sit atop their dragons – most of them.

Colette isn’t on Judith, because she’s pacing worriedly, and Colette has the feeling the said dragon is going to take off and rescue Toothless again.

“It’s a dragon egg,” she mutters, shifting it’s position for the others to see.

“Ohh!” Fishlegs coos, leaning over it. “That’s a Monstrous Nightmare egg! What happened to its mother?”

 Colette gnaws on her lip. “She was killed,” she replies. “He… he must’ve killed her. The rest of the nest was destroyed.” Destroyed is easier to relay than how she was beheaded, and every one of its siblings were smashed.

“We should’ve locked him in a cage,” Astrid mutters darkly.

“Well, nobody doubts that,” Colette replies fiercely. She saw… that. How can humans be so – so – ugh. She hates people. She hates being human.

A flicker of… something falls through the night sky. And then dozens more – oh, flaming arrows. Which means… “And that would be the sight of our next problem,” Astrid huffs. “That guy must’ve brought his entire armada here. Toothless is gonna need –” With a cry, Judith takes off.

Hannibal looks skywards, jaw clenched with worry.

“Colette, you can ride with me,” Astrid offers, holding out her hand.

“Or me!” Snotlout offers, leaning lazily against Hookfang’s horns.

Colette accepts Astrid’s offered hand and climbs on with her, cradling the egg in her arm. “Hookfang, want to check this out?” she asks tentatively, holding it out carefully.

Hookfang sniffs at it carefully, sort of wincing a little in sympathy. This is one of his kind. At least this little dragon will have someone of its kind to grow up around.

***

Judith flies up to about-to-be chaos. She can see that coming as she glides into the trees, bracing – Toothless is being backed right up to the edge of a cliff now.

“ – don’t care about sporting,” Dagur is saying through the trees. “I care about killing that Night Fury and wearing its skull as a helmet!”

Is he –

“Okay, that's it. I am not going to let you kill that dragon,” Hiccup snaps fiercely. This is the first time Judith remembers Hiccup giving a flat-out order to anyone… ever, and she’d be proud if she weren’t so livid.

Dagur is going to kill Toothless? As if killing wasn’t bad enough, he’s going to talk about trophies?

And Toothless’s skull? Yeah, she’s mad.

“This again? Fine, you saw it first, you can take home a wing or something,” Dagur concedes indulgingly.

“No, I'm pretty much gonna take the whole thing,” Hiccup sasses, hooting.

Toothless skims over Dagur’s head and lands behind Hiccup, who immediately steps in front of him. The truth is coming out, but Hiccup doesn’t care. Judith doesn’t really, either. It was bound to. She’d dive-bomb Dagur if she knew it wouldn’t hit Hiccup, but that’s always the risk.

Hiccup just dumps the truth. “We don’t hunt dragons on Berk,” he says simply, unphased on Toothless’s back in the face of Dagur’s rage. He motions Toothless to and they try to fly out. Judith follows, pausing at Toothless’s cry and spinning back when she sees him dropping.

Dagur.

She didn’t know he had bolas with him, but he’s netting Toothless down. He takes one to the tail, another to his wings, and then to his mouth before he can off Dagur with a plasma blast. Judith dives with a roar, diving and whacking Dagur away with her tail. He rolls to his feet, lunging at Toothless with a furious snarl. Hiccup dives in front of him, shield raised, and the blade hits the shield.

Dagur kicks him. Hiccup hits the ground a distance off, hard, shield dropping.

Judith spits a cloud of sleep at him. Dagur dodges, rolling aside and going for his crossbow, raising and aiming the weapon at her. Toothless lashes out with his tail, tripping him with a snarl. She still dives back for tree cover, peaking out at the tree line. Hiccup ducks behind a tree himself to avoid the knives Dagur’s throwing his way with a series of maniacal cackles.

Judith dodges an arrow – Dagur must’ve gotten his hands back on that crossbow.

They’re too close. She can’t aim her blasts properly, but at least she’s diverting his attention off the other two. Toothless is immobile, but Hiccup’s always got some sort of plan. Judith hears the whoosh of Dagur’s arrows, a few more going off.

She can’t fight this maniac when he has so many weapons.

“You can’t hide forever!” Dagur yells.

“I don’t plan to,” Hiccup answers fiercely, diving from behind the tree. His shield snaps open and he fires one of Dagur’s arrows right back at him.

Dagur dodges. “Nice try, brother,” he mocks.

“Oh, and by the way, I'm not your brother,” Hiccup snaps, firing the grappling feature from his shield onto a branch and yanking.

“You missed,” Dagur snickers.

“Did I?” Hiccup sasses as the branch cracks, dropping on Dagur’s head.

Judith snickers. She dives forwards to stand in front of them as Hiccup gets Toothless free. Dagur throws another knife her way that she dodges, and she meets his charge with another blast.

Dagur drops.

“Thanks,” Hiccup tells her gratefully as he scrambles on Toothless again, and this time when they take off, they leave together. Dagur doesn’t get up again.

***

“Are you okay?” Colette calls to him as soon as the group reunites and heads off Dragon Island.

“Yeah,” Hiccup agrees.

No.

He hurts everywhere, but more than that…

He’s terrified.

War on two fronts isn’t good for anyone. It’s especially not good for an island as small as Berk.

Dagur is… vengeful. He’s always been like that, and Hiccup is afraid of what’s about to come. He’s going to have to tell Stoick about this, and he isn’t going to be happy.

“Does this mean we’re gonna have two wars to deal with?” she asks quietly.

Hiccup sighs heavily. “Yeah, it does,” he replies, “And I’ll hafta tell my dad.”

“You know that wasn’t your fault,” Hannibal replies. “It was gonna come out eventually.”

Hiccup knows that, but it doesn’t really change the facts. They head back to Berk, quiet and subdued, and Colette finally tells him about the Nightmare egg she rescued. Probably the egg of the Nightmare head Dagur had on his camp wall. Hiccup feels sicker even thinking about it.

Dagur wants Toothless.

And it’s so, so hard to keep Dagur away from what he wants.

Stoick doesn’t seem angry. Strangely. More tired and resigned, and Hiccup can’t say how relieved he is about that – he honestly can’t take another… explosive situation right now. Spending that night with Dagur is the most terrifying, exhausting thing he’s ever done.

He does a bit of research about baby Monstrous Nightmares with Fishlegs just for curiosity, and as a distraction, hands some of what he knows over to Colette, tries to talk Snotlout into helping take care of a baby, and by evening is ready to crash for an entire year.

Colette is setting the egg in a bucket of water for the night in case it explodes when he gets there, the others gathered around it.

“So, why am I hearing about that deranged weirdo calling you his brother?” Colette calls over her shoulder. “I thought you hated each other.”

Yeah, that’s an… an easy mistake. Hate might be a strong word – okay, it’s true. Hiccup does hate him. Honestly. How couldn’t he? Because Dagur is… Dagur. He’s awful. He’s insane, he’s a sadistic murderer, so why does Hiccup still feel a strange sense of grief and loss at… all this?

“You’d think,” Hiccup mutters, because he wants to talk about anyone other than Dagur. Dagur was – well, he says all sorts of crazy things. He doesn’t want to think about the brother thing at all.

He trusts Hannibal’s words for it with a blink, but Dagur? And besides, he’s – he’s never had a sibling before. What does it even mean to?

Hiccup’s always been alone.

“How’s the egg doing?” Hiccup asks off-handedly in an attempted topic swap, leaning down to gently touch the shell.

“Not hatched,” Colette answers the obvious. “But I’m serious. I’m so confused.”

“Me too,” Hannibal agrees.

Ah, great. They really do want answers then. He can’t get out of this, and he doesn’t…

“It’s just talk. The guy’s insane, y’know.” He’s lying, and he knows they know he’s lying, but Hiccup just really… really doesn’t want to think about it. Once, he would’ve accepted that offer without thought, with relief and genuine tears that someone wanted him, but now all that matters is Toothless and keeping him and his friends, and the rest of Berk safe.

“I don’t mean to be pushy,” Hannibal prods anyway, “But he sounded pretty serious. Not that it means anything. I…” He’d been so angry when Dagur called him that. Hiccup saw, but didn’t have mental space to think about any of it. He still doesn’t.

“He had a sister who was lost at sea many years ago. She was about my age. I guess he sees me as… like her?” That’s his best guess.

“Don’t make me feel bad for him,” Judith grumbles.

“That didn’t stop him from trying to kill me,” Hiccup points out. “Or killing this baby’s entire family.” He gently pats the egg again. It’s something anyone on Berk would’ve done, but he’s still so thoroughly disgusted with the bloodlust. He can’t stay quiet when people hurt dragons. He won’t. Not anymore.

But still.

That…

Meant more to him than he wishes it did.

Hannibal pats his shoulder. “You only have one brother, and that’s me,” he says seriously. “And I don’t throw knives at my little brothers.”

A strange amount of emotion he can’t begin to put words on smothers him. “I know,” Hiccup mutters, diving forwards to wrap himself in the other boy’s arms. Hannibal wraps him in a firm embrace, warm, comfortable and not smothering like Dagur’s.

(Dagur hugged him. He tried to kill him. He – Hiccup doesn’t want to think about him. He wants to cry every time he does.)

Toothless noses his way into the hug, and Hiccup reaches out to draw him closer, clinging to his dragon for all he’s worth. Toothless nearly died last night. He’ll never get that out of his head.

The girls exchange glances and come to join the hug, squeezing them in between the group’s center. He feels safe here. It’s… a nice feeling.

But it won’t change the coming war.

It won’t stop Dagur.

***

Colette’s jolted awake by a sound she can’t recognize, and then a sharp cracking has her launching from bed, peeling the twins off her. The egg.

The fire instantly quenches the explosion, but the dragon that splashes its way to the top with a shrill wail is so, so tiny. Colette reaches to scoop it up, and bright golden eyes slowly peel open to meet hers.

The horns are so tiny and stubby compared to Hookfang’s massive ones. They must come in a lot more with size, too, and wings so small it can barely fly. It’s…

Not the first baby dragon Colette has ever seen, but the first baby Nightmare, and she is going to cry.

“Aww.” Judith coos carefully reaching out to pet the dragon’s tiny, still soft scales.

Hannibal makes a quiet, little sound and carefully reaches to touch its face. “What do we call it?”

“Isabella,” Colette settles on, in memory of the Fire Dragon sister Judith will never see again. “Izzy?”

She makes a quiet little sound that’s genuinely cute enough to make Colette cry of itself. She’s so, so cute.

“Sounds good to me,” Hannibal agrees, smiling softly.

“C’mon,” Colette says, cradling the little dragon close to her chest, “Let’s take her around to show everyone.”

They drop by at Hiccup’s house first. He looks exhausted enough when they come into his room that she almost wonders if he’s been sleeping at all. Considering Dragon Island, she wouldn’t really be surprised.

But still, the sheer worn exhaustion and misery on his face lightens a little to a small smile when he sees the dragon.

“I named her Izzy,” Colette says, holding her out.

He smiles a little, slowly taking the dragon from her. “You should take it to Hookfang,” Hiccup says finally.

Toothless is already perking up on the far side of the room, though, so she brings it over to him first. Izzy chirps a little as she stares up at him. Toothless noses her, yipping softly, and she wonders what they’re saying to each other.

They go downstairs and Hiccup gets Toothless a fish, which he eats and then spits out a little for Izzy. Colette lightly sets her on the floor so she can scamper over to it, eating it down. Toothless looks satisfied, especially when she coos up at him happily.

They’re so cute. Honestly.

She has no idea how anyone could ever hurt a creature like this. She leaves them to nose at each other for a few minutes before finally scooping up Izzy and heading out to the arena, where all the others are gathering as usual/

“So, it hatched?” Astrid asks, when she sees the baby.

“Uhuh,” Colette agrees eagerly, holding it out.

All the riders crowd around her instantly.

“Ooh, she’s so cute,” Fishlegs breathes,

 “Awesome,” Tuffnut breathes and she could swear she hears a sniffle.

“Are you crying?” asks Ruffnut.

Colette looks up and oh, yeah, he is. She can’t blame him. Izzy is so cute, she can hardly look at her at all without crying, especially with the way she’s cocking her head as she looks between all of them and their dragons.

“No,” Tuffnut protests, “Maybe. Yes. Don’t judge me. And so are you.”

“Am not,” Ruffnut denies. but her face is wet, anyway.

“Hope you don’t mind if I bring her over to your house sometimes,” Colette remarks to Snotlout, as she goes over to Hookfang so the two dragons can sniff at each other.

“Why would I mind?” Snotlout asks with far too much cheer.

Colette side-eyes him a little warily. He’s never actually… uhh, been weird in her direction before. She doesn’t know if that was supposed to be or not. Hopefully not.

Hookfang spits out some fish for Izzy and Colette leaves them there to just bond with each other for a while. She has no idea what a baby dragon being raised by mostly humans would do its development. She’ll have to try letting her be around Hookfang as much as possible.

“Hey, so I was thinking,” Hannibal comments, coming over, “That maybe we can make her a metal bed to put next to ours so if she starts spitting fire, she won’t burn the house down.”

“And we better start keeping water buckets in our room,” Judith agrees dryly.

“Good idea,” Colette says, smiling a little. Despite all the tension of the impending war hanging over their heads, Izzy is a nice break from that. Raising her is gonna be fun. The responsibility is a little terrifying but she’s gonna do it.

Chapter Text

Of all chaos they could run into now, Colette’s not expecting to hear that the well’s running dry. But hey, at least that’s not a world-ending kind of catastrophe and there’s been way too much of that lately. Especially after Dragon Island. The constant gnawing dread and fear is exhausting. So yeah, she’s just glad this isn’t something much worse. Maybe. Everyone dying of thirst would actually be a really big problem, so…

She goes with Hannibal, Astrid, and Snotlout to start filling jugs with water, as Stoick asked them. Judith and the twins are sent off to fill more water jugs at a different lake, and Colette actually has no idea where Hiccup and Fishlegs disappeared too. Hopefully they don’t need to worry about that.

Hannibal is in his dragon form, helping them draw water faster.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Snotlout pipes up as they work, “Who says we have to give this water away?”

“What are you talking about?” Astrid asks, warily.

“You’re saying we should sell them?” Colette is quick to deduce. Yeah, after the whole stones of good fortune incident only weeks ago, the suggestion doesn’t really surprise her. Even if she can’t say she’s too impressed with the idea either.

“Exactly. It’s simple supply in demand, follow me here, the people of Berk are parched, desperate for fresh water, and who’s got all water?” Snotlout asks, with far too much glee, “Us, of course. I’m gonna make a fortune.”

“We can’t just take advantage of people like that,” Astrid argues.

“Yeah,” Colette agrees, “Look, if this was our own idea, maybe we could charge people, but we’re doing it under Stoick’s orders.” And that’s really not fair, anyway.

“Fine,” Snotlout retorts, “Then I’ll get rich and you won’t.”

“I mean, that’s fine with me,” Colette replies, “What would I even do with money? All I need to feed is myself and Izzy.” And she doesn’t really need a whole lot of money or really anything for that.

“Whatever you want,” he shrugs, “Just don’t ask me to cut you in later.”

Yeah, she thinks she just got done saying she really wouldn’t care to do that but it’s probably best to just drop it. It’s usually to not drag on arguments with Snotlout and just hope he’ll… rethink this.

Which, as she should’ve expected, doesn’t happen. He starts trying to charge people for the water jugs as soon as they get back to Berk. Astrid just starts tossing people the water jugs and Colette feels a tiny bit of sympathy when Snotlout starts wailing about how they’re stealing all his customers, but hey, he’s not being fair, so… She and Hannibal join in with Astrid as they distribute the water.

The ground trembles beneath them suddenly and she’s almost certain she hears a distant growling sound.

“What’s that?” Astrid demands, beating her to the question.

“It sounds…”

Oh. Oh no. She knows that sound. Way too well. It’s –

The ground beneath them suddenly makes a noise like rocks tearing apart and then a giant hole is opening in front of them. They all scramble back, right as a Whispering Death flies out of the ground.

“Okay, store’s closed,” Snotlout yells and runs.

Stoick is running for a warning horn, behind them.

The ground tears open only feet away and another whispering death comes through. There’s two of them?

Oh wait – there’s another hole not far away. They’re all tiny compared to the one that attacked Berk not long ago but there’s so many. What was she just thinking about how things weren’t as chaotic anymore? Yeah, way to jinx in.

Colette looks around, heart pounding. Where did these things come from and why are there so many?!

“Everyone, get to their dragons,” Astrid yells.

Colette runs for Hannibal and swings onto his back, taking off. Stormfly starts shooting tail spikes one of the whispering death, forcing it aside but there’s so many.

“Where did these things come from?” Astrid calls, “And why are they so much smaller?”

“They could be hatchlings!” Fishlegs calls back, a bit panicked.

“You don’t think that last one that was here laid eggs or something, do you?” Colette asks breathlessly, as Hannibal dives down to tail-slam one of the smaller dragons.

“I don’t know,” Fishlegs replies, “But I think they would have hatched long ago if it had.”

Weird. Not that any of this isn’t and she doesn’t really have the breath or time to think about it when Hannibal is diving everywhere, trying to avoid those things.

“Being hatchlings is good news, right?” Astrid asks.

“Actually, no,” Fishlegs objects, hands fumbling, “Newly hatched whispering deaths can be more deadly than adults. They don’t have control of their jaw muscles or their spines. They’re kind of like out of control saw blades!”

Oh. Great.

“Hannibal can try to run them out,” Fishlegs suggests, “They’re attracted to light.”

Hannibal growls a little, head twisting around to look at Colette.

Rrright.

Because she can’t ride him when he’s glowing. He dives back for the ground and she jumps off, trying not to panic too much at being stuck here on the ground when she doesn’t know when another one of those things could pop out of the ground right where she was just standing, and Hannibal starts glowing brighter and brighter, flying near the ground to keep them from going back into the holes. Except they just yowl and dive away, going back below ground anyway.

Well, not quite what they were going for.

She hears distant exclamations from above and looking up, sees Judith and the twins flying in. Finally.

Judith swoops down near Colette and she jumps onto her back, before they fly off again, moments before the whispering death start coming out of the ground again. Judith breathes sleep at them but it takes two shots for her to even take down one of them, with how wildly they’re all diving around.

And from there, everything basically explodes into chaos with the dragons shooting fire blasts and Hannibal diving around to keep them above ground. Hiccup flies up somewhere amidst the chaos, joining in trying to herd the dragons away.

“The whispering death drained our water supply!” Hiccup yells.

“I was wondering that,” Judith’s voice speaks, in their minds.

Yeah, her too. Hopefully it hasn’t caused too much worse damage than just that, below the ground.

They’re just managing to drive the ones who are still awake towards the edge of the village when the ground suddenly trembles violently. There’s a loud screeching but it’s much louder than the whispering death, and then an enormous hole tears in the ground below. But it’s not a giant whispering death that comes out – it’s something else entirely. Something far huger that’s whitish with huge red eyes. It roars fiercely down at them.

What – ? “What is that?!” Colette yelps.

“I don’t know, but it’s awesome!” Tuffnut yells.

“It’s what I was afraid of!” Hiccup calls, eyes wide. “We need to run those things out of here!” he adds breathlessly, diving aside as the giant creature chases him. “Suggestions anyone?”

Hannibal growls in response, dives towards him, glowing brighter. But instead of swerving away, the creature goes flying right towards him???

He spins around and takes off and Colette can’t even blame him for just panicking. Hiccup chases after. “Fishlegs, is this thing in the book of dragons?” asks Hiccup.

“Definitely not!” Fishlegs yells back.

“Are you sure?”

“Hiccup, I am certain I would have remembered an all-white, titan wing whispering death with bring red eyes that bore a hole right through your very soul!” Fishlegs replies, arms waving for emphasis.

“Yeah, no doubts there,” Colette calls breathlessly, “So what is that thing?”

“Screaming death!” Tuffnut crows from behind them, as they follow the creature as it speeds after Hannibal, “I love it!”

Yeah, she really doesn’t think love is the right word for a new dragon, in this situation.

***

Hannibal has no idea why that thing is flying right towards him but now that he has its attention, all he can do is fly as fast as he can.

“This one must be attracted to light,” Hiccup calls, as they fly.

Greeeat.

That means it’ll like him the most. At least it’s leading him away from Berk but what they’re going to do now, he has no idea. And he doesn’t have Judith here to translate any questions to Hiccup. She’s way in the back of the ground.

But the kid flies ahead of him, tilting his shield a little to reflect in the sunlight. The creature snarls fiercely, flying towards both of them now. “We can get it to knock itself out,” Hiccup explains, as he flies towards a group of sea stacks up ahead.

That’s… actually ingenious.

Hannibal flies right towards one of them, Hiccup right near him and they both abruptly dive different ways once they’re right in front of the sea stack. The creature can’t turn fast enough and it slams into the sea stack and just drops, falling to the sand below. It growls faintly and tries to move but just drops again.

It’s down. Finally.

He lets go of the glowing instantly, flying over to Hiccup. And then he hears more whispering death growls and looks up to see all the others flying in, But thankfully, they ignore him and Hiccup entirely instead flying for the much larger creature and lifting it up, flying away together.

“Let’s get back to Berk,” Hiccup advises. Hannibal couldn’t agree more.

He shifts back to his human form once they do get back.

The other riders are gathered, waiting for them, standing near the countless holes in the ground The damage Is much worse than last time. And with the number of holes they’re getting under the island, Hannibal’s beginning to get worried about sink holes or something. They can start filling in the holes but how much damage is there under the surface that they won’t be able to fix?

“We have a problem,” Hiccup says, looking between them.

“Like a sink hole problem?” Hannibal asks, a little dryly.

“More than that,” Hiccup replies, “The Outcasts put those eggs there. I saw their symbol when I was underground.”

…Oh. That doesn’t actually surprise him – those eggs just showing up out of nowhere was awfully weird.

 And of course they would pull something like that.

“That seems… obvious of them,” Colette remarks.

Yeah, clearly they’re not trying to hide it. Then again, they were probably hoping the damage to Berk would be a lot worse than it is. “At least they’re gone now,” offers Snotlout.

“Actually,” Fishlegs corrects, “Whispering Death are known to return to the location where they first hatched.”

There’s a collective groan from basically everyone.

“Great,” Hannibal says flatly, “So they’re going to be back?”

“They probably will be,” Hiccup agrees with a sigh, “We’ll have to be ready for it.”

Somehow.

***

They gather together with the Riders to eat at the Great Hall that evening, after hours of helping fill in the holes. Hannibal can’t help noticing that Hiccup seems… broody. He’s hardly eating and he hasn’t really said anything, even over the chatter from everyone else.

“I know the well is working again,” Judith remarks, “But what if it fails again? If it does fail again, we need to be able to rely on something else…. Like seawater.”

“That would kill everyone,” Colette replies dryly, glancing away from where she was watching Izzy running in circles around Toothless and Hookfang’s legs. The little dragon is adorable, Hannibal has to admit.

“That is not what I mean,” Judith replies flatly.

“What are you thinking?” Astrid queries.

“I was thinking,” she muses, “That if we could find a way to evaporate the water and then catch it all and get it to condense in a different container away from the salt, it would be pure. We’d just have to use metal or something to keep it from escaping… and to avoid anything starting to on fire.” She frowns, looking thoughtful.

“Ooh, that could work,” Fishlegs says, lighting up, “I think it would take a lot of drawings but it’s something we could work on.”

Hannibal is expecting Hiccup to have some comments the way he always does about some kind of new invention but he doesn’t say anything. He just continues poking at his food and looking completely unenthused at even that. He looks… exhausted.

He’s definitely gonna be asking him about it later.

***

Hiccup can never get himself to relax anymore. He can never get himself to stop fearing and even as he walks back to his house, with Toothless, Hannibal, Judith, and Colette alongside him, his mind won’t stop looping over everything he knows is coming.

The Whispering Death could decimate all of Berk but they’re also dragons and they know how to deal with dragons. Just… not usually ones like that.

Alvin is… well, Hiccup can never stop remembering the dungeon or Toothless suspended form that wall, or the sheer helplessness of never knowing when he was going to get out of there. But at the end of the day, it’s not him that Alvin cared about.

But it is him and Toothless Dagur cares about. Hiccup doesn’t want to know what’ll happen whenever he finally shows up. He’s going to attack Berk just to hurt Hiccup. And to do whatever he’s planning to, to Toothless. And Hiccup’s never gonna be ready for any of that.

And it’s not like with Alvin where they’ve never had any past history of anything. Everything with Dagur is so much more… complicated than that.

They had… something. Sort of.

But it’s just a had now.

And now, after seeing how Hannibal, Judith, and Colette are with him, he doesn’t know that he can even call it a real friendship, now that he knows what friendships are meant to be like. But Hiccup had still… cared about him, even if he feels a bit insane for it, especially now. But back then, Dagur had been the only person who really seemed to… like him.

He still can’t shake the gnawing hurt or sense of loss over what happened that night. Even if now, he’s just scared for when Dagur inevitably shows up here. At least that’s one thing that’s about the same as it always used to be – Dagur has always been terrifying, even if Hiccup used to be able to find some strange, twisted sense of enjoyment in the companionship they had back in the day.

“You seem kind of broody,” Hannibal comments, moving to fall in step next to him.

Hiccup startles out of his thoughts, a little. “We have a new species of dragons to worry about attacking us,” he points out. Which isn’t even most of it but it’s the easiest thing to explain.

“I know,” Colette agrees with a sigh, one arm around Izzy as the dragon noses at her clothes. Is it trying to chew on them? Hiccup can’t tell.

“I doubt that’s the only thing you’ve been thinking about,” Hannibal says, studying him. They always seem to notice those things, somehow.

Hiccup sighs. “We’re facing an attack from three directions,” he answers finally, “There’s Alvin and now the Screaming Death and Dagur.”

“Well, you don’t have to do this alone,” Hannibal reminds softly.

The thing being, that that’s as relieving as it is terrifying. “It’s just that…” Hiccup hesitates. “Alvin wants Berk gone. But Dagur is after me and Toothless. It’s personal.”

“Well,” Colette says, scowling darkly, “Then we’re gonna make it personally explosive for him.”

“Just because it’s personal doesn’t mean you’re in this alone,” Hannibal reminds, no less fiercely.

But that’s exactly the thing. It just means one or all of them is nearly guaranteed to end up getting hurt as they stand up for him. “I know,” he says, almost miserably, “And he’s going to go through all of you to get to me.”

If there was a way for him to be the only one who got hurt, he’d take it. But there isn’t – not without Toothless being at risk, which is the last chance he’d ever take.

Judith seems to catch his gaze because she straightens a little. “Well,” she says, fiercely, “You better not be thinking about doing anything stupid like last time, or I’m tying you to my bed and I’ll break through reality to invent a GPS to attach to you.”

…okay.

That is actually a little, uhh… He doesn’t know what to do in the face of someone being that fiercely protective of him. “Yikes,” he squeaks.

“Besides,” Hannibal adds, “Alvins’s fight is personal to Stoick, just like Dagur’s fight is personal to you. It’s not really that different.”

“Well, I think Hiccup’s point is that Alvin’s fight is Stoick’s problem, not Hiccupp’s,” Colette pipes up. Then pauses when she seems to realize how that sounded. “I mean,” she says, waving her free hand, “I’m not saying that it’s not still important but – “

“Exactly,” Hiccup interjects for her with a sigh.

“I know why you’re worried,” Hannibal concedes finally, lightly patting Hiccup’s shoulder. We’ve never been in the middle of a war before.”

Yeah and that’s why he’s so scared. And he already knows the other three are really still getting used to this life.

“You know,” Colette speaks up quietly, gaze shadowed, “When we first started riding dragons, I thought it would be mostly fun.  At least, after we got everyone on Berk on board. I never realized it was going to be…. such a constant fight.”

“Dragons will always have enemies and people who refuse to accept them,” Hiccup points out quietly.

“Yeah,” she agrees tiredly, “I guess by helping them, we made their fight ours. Not that it’s not worth it.” She makes a face. “You know what? I’m just glad some random somebody didn’t decide to make me their younger sibling for no reason. That sounds like it would really suck.”

Yeah, Hiccup doesn’t want to think about that part at all. It would make a lot more sense if he could say that hadn’t meant anything to him.

At least Hannibal calling him his brother makes sense. He tries to think about that instead and the flare of warmth it makes him feel. It’s strange to think that they’ve been here for almost a year now. Has it really been that long now? Or is that short with how much happened?

“I hope you’re not trying to say Judith and I should disown you,” Hannibal points out dryly, a little teasingly and Hiccup really appreciates the conversation distraction.

“What?” Colette yelps, “No! That’s not what I meant!”

“And you’re not a random someone,” Hiccup adds.

“Not anymore,” Judith agrees. She pulls Hiccup into a one-armed hug, which he sinks into gratefully, and everyone is quick to pile in.

It might not do much to change anything, but at least it’s a silent reminder that they’re all there and… won’t be going anywhere, at least not if they can help it. 

Chapter Text

They keep on training constantly, especially now with the Screaming Death out there. They’ve been running dragon drills non-stop, nearly to the point of exhaustion, but with one look at Hookfang, Hiccup’s pretty sure Snotlout’s going way overboard with that.

Especially since Hookfang’s eyes are half closed and he barely even sparks when Snotlout tries to get him to breathe fire again.

“What’s wrong with him?” asks Colette, frowning.

“Nothing,” Snotlout retorts, “He’s just stubborn.”

Hookfang can be very stubborn, yeah, but Hiccup really doesn’t think that that’s what that looks like, in this case. “That looked more tired than stubborn,” Colette argues.

“I think you might be pushing him too hard,” Hiccup chimes in with a frown.

“You say "pushing," I say "challenging". Hookfang doesn't need rest. He's a warrior. And we warriors live for the thrill of battle,” Snotlout argues, “It's like my dad always says – ”

“’Take a bath, Snotlout’?” Astrid snarks.

“Rip your tongue out, Snotlout?” Ruffnut offers.

“Stick your head up a yak's – ” Tuffnut starts to say.

“No!” Snotlout protests, “No! None of those. He says ‘rest is for the weak’.”

Hiccup sighs. “And let's all thank Snotlout for that inspirational speech.”

“I think the fastest way to find out what’s wrong with him is if we just ask him,” Judith interjects flatly, going over to Hookfang. She lays a hand on his snout, her eyes glowing silver.

She frowns a little, as she looks up from him. “He’s tired,” she says, “And he feels like he’s getting sick.”

“There aren’t more of those stupid blue flowers around, are there?” asks Tuffnut.

“It’s just him,” Judith replies, shaking her head, “I don’t think so.”

“Just because he’s a little sick doesn’t mean he can’t flame up. He was fine earlier,” Snotlout argues, arms crossed but Hiccup can see it when he’s getting worried, even if he’s hiding it. That’s why he’s being this defensive about it, “He’s still being stubborn.”

“I think we need to check this out in the Book of Dragons,” Hiccup says.

‘Fine,” Snotlout huffs, “Be my guest.”

They go back to the arena together, Fishlegs retrieving the Book of Dragons to look over the symptoms Hookfang is displaying.

But he’s getting worse, his skin fading to a disturbingly pale color it’s definitely not supposed to be. And his tongue is hanging out and he doesn’t seem to have the energy to even move anymore.

Snotlout is fidgeting impatiently, occasionally touching his dragon, or at least tries to until Hookfang moves his head away. Snotlout’s hands lower, something hurt and increasingly scared in his eyes.

Yeah, Hiccup’s getting scared, too. He knew something was wrong. He just didn’t think it was this bad.

Izzy jumps out of Colette’s arms, running over to Hookfang and nosing at him. The dragon hardly even reacts to her – even more unusual for him.

“None of these are good alone, but together, really not good,” Fishlegs says, as they finish checking the symptoms.

“So, what are you saying?” Hiccup asks tentatively.

“According to the Book of Dragons, a monstrous nightmare can lose its ability to generate flame.”

“But why?” Astrid protests.

“Lot of reasons,” Fishlegs offers, “Old age, injury, exhaustion.”

“I think I can see the problem here,” Judith remarks, frowning a little.

“Pushed too hard by his stubborn rider,” Astrid cuts in.

“I heard that, and I always push him this hard. So he’s a little low on his flame. What’s the cure?” Snotlout demands.

“That’s the thing with stoker-class dragons,” Fishlegs replies, “Once they lose their flaming ability, they become completely defenseless and – ”

“What are saying, Fishlegs?” Snotlout yells, jerking forwards.

“I’m saying Hookfang is in trouble!” he throws back, “And we need to do something now.”

“So if you let him rest a little,” Colette interjects, looking scared too, “The flame would regenerate eventually, right?”

“I don’t think so,” Fishlegs argues, “It’s like a real fire. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

“But we have to do something,” Colette argues, as Snotlout’s face is going increasingly panicked.

“To start with, you need to take Hookfang home and let him rest,” Judith says firmly. She goes over to the dragon, lightly patting his snout, “Hey, if Snotlout or anyone tries to make you do anything, you need to ignore them.”

Hookfang barely even twitches.

Hannibal sighs. “You should think about how much your dragon trusts you, to let you push him this far in the first place.”

Snotlout turns away, stalking over to Hookfang. He doesn’t say anything else as they leave for the day, though Hiccup watches him until he’s flown away. He almost wants to say something else to him but he doesn’t know what. Words aren’t gonna save Hookfang – he needs to find some actual way to cure this before it’s too late.

***

Hookfang doesn’t look any better the next day, and Hiccup goes over to crouch next to Snotlout, where he’s sitting next to his dragon’s head. “Don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” he promises. “I promise.”

“I’m not worried,” Snotlout snaps, head jerking up.

Hookfang groans faintly and he looks down again, lightly touching Hookfang’s jaw.

No, he’s not worried – he’s probably terrified actually considering that he’s crying.

“Whoa!” Tuffnut exclaims, unhelpfully leaning over him, “Are you crying? What’s that like?”

Snotlout whirls around, punching him. “That’s ridiculous,” he snarls. “Ha, there’s dust in my eyes.”

“Dust,” Hannibal repeats, a little flatly.

“Yes.” He scowls, even if it does nothing to hide how wet his eyes are. “Can’t you see how dusty it is in here, guys?”

Yeah, Hiccup’s not gonna call him out on that. He wants to say something to make him feel better but he doesn’t know what and he thinks it would only make him more uncomfortable right now.

“Snotlout,” Astrid says, stepping forwards and touching his shoulder lightly, “There is nothing wrong with being upset. It just means you care.”

Snotlout stares down at her hand, almost confused before he stumbles back from her. “All right, um, let’s just pretend for a minute that I did, well, care. How would I know? I mean, how would you know?”

“Well,” Astrid offers, “You might feel tightness in your chest. You might get a little shaky. Your eyes might get watery.”

“You might feel a little guilty,” Colette pipes up.

Snotlout rubs at his eyes, looking away. “Yeah, I’m going with the dust option,” he insists. “For now.”

Which is right when Fishlegs finally comes over, with information about fire worms being able to reignite a dragon’s flame. Hiccup leaves Snotlout to stay with Hookfang, and the rest of them take off to find these fireworms.

***

Hannibal can’t believe they’ve managed to get themselves in a mess like this, but maybe he shouldn’t really be that surprised, either. Something’s bound to go wrong with advice from someone like Spitelout. He still can’t believe the kinds of things he says to Snotlout.

He and all the others, aside from Snotlout and Fishlegs, have been hunting down fire worms for hours now.

But he’s not quite expecting the fireworms he finds to run over to him, sniffing curiously, when they see him in his dragon form. The light. They’re attracted to it, aren’t they?

Hannibal lets himself glow a little brighter, starting to trot away, and he’s a little surprised when the creatures just follow him. Well, this is gonna be easy. He runs into some of the others on the way, helping them out with their own fireworms as they go back to the arena. He’s really not surprised to see the twins coming in with bandage wrapped hands, though.

They set the fireworms in a circle around Hookfang, but nothing happens.

“I think we’re gonna have to do more than that,” Colette objects, frowning.

“Put them on Hookfang,” Hiccup suggests, perking up, “Direct heat should help.”

“Yes, direct heat!” Snotlout exclaims, grabbing Hiccup’s shoulders and shaking him, “Good idea.”

Hopefully a good idea. Hannibal goes over to help lift the tiny dragons himself since they aren’t going to burn him in his dragon form. For a moment, it almost looks like Hookfang is starting to flame up but then the fire just as quickly dies again.

Snotlout’s shoulders slump.

Hannibal has no idea what to do. He’s not a fire dragon himself. This isn’t something he knows how to fix.

“He’s getting weaker,” Judith says worriedly, in his head. They don’t even need to be a spirit dragon to see that anymore. They don’t have time and Hannibal doesn’t know what to do. And he finds himself, as often, looking to Hiccup in the hopes he’ll have some idea.

Except, he’s standing there watching the twins who are waving two fireworms at each other, as though they wouldn’t give each other serious burns if they touched each other with those.

“Do you really think now is a good time to pay attention to the twins?” Astrid asks, a little incredulous.

“I really think you two should put those down,” Colette says, nearly facepalming.

“Why? This is fun!” Tuffnut throws back, waving his fireworm in Ruffnut’s face, and then nearly tripping over backwards as he attempts to dodge it when she waves it at him.

“Yeah,” Ruffnut agrees gleefully.

Hiccup darts over, stepping between them which is enough to momentarily make them back off from each other. “I know I don’t usually say this,” he says, “But you two are geniuses.”

“Yeah, we knew that,” Tuffnut agrees cheerfully, as the twins bang heads.

Hannibal is just confused. He appreciates the need for compliments but he really doesn’t see how that has any bearing on the situation at hand.

Judith growls her agreement, probably a question in Hiccup’s mind.

“They glow when they’re closer together,” Hiccup explains, as he goes to start collecting the dragons and putting them in a jar, “So we could follow them… out to Fireworm island.”

That’s… actually brilliant.

***

“I can carry him,” Hannibal suggests, going over to Hookfang, who’s been able to fly out to the shore but there’s no way he’s going to be making it on a long trip.

“You could?” Snotlout queries, looking hopeful.

Hannibal nods. None of the other dragons might be strong enough to do that in a long flight, but he should be.

He shifts to his dragon form again before they take off, and he carries Hookfang along. Snotlout rides behind Hiccup as they go. The flight takes way into the night but they finally find the island and let a few fireworms go to lead them to the cave.

“Snotlout, you should stay here with Hookfang,” Hiccup says, as Hannibal lightly sets the Monstrous Nightmare on the ground and gently noses him.

“No,” Snotlout argues, “I did this to Hookfang. I have to fix it.”

It’s… strange to see him saying something like that so bluntly out loud but Hannibal’s realized after knowing him so long that he has way more of a heart than it sometimes seems like on the surface.

“We’ll stay with Hookfang,” Astrid offers and Hiccup nods, nudging Toothless forwards and they run into the nest opening.

Something tells Hannibal this is about to go very wrong but for now, all they can do is sit here and wait. They haven’t been waiting long when a screeching, brilliantly glowing dragon comes flying out the opening, landing in front of it.

“Uh, not good,” Colette squeaks.

That’s the fire worm queen? The thing is huge compared to the tiny worms.

“Should we do something about that?” asks Astrid.

“Yeah, but what?” Colette asks.

“Get it out of there,” Hannibal growls his agreement even if they can’t understand him. Spreading his wings, he dives at it, growling. The queen spits fire at him and he dives out of the way. Astrid swoops down seconds later, having Stormfly throw tail spikes at it and the queen takes off into the air, hissing at them.

Well, at least they got her out of the opening.

Hannibal lights himself up, trying to use that to keep her distracted and off the ground. She chases him and they circle around in the sky up above, until Toothless comes flying out. Snotlout jumps off, running over to Hookfang, holding… something

The queen snarls, diving back towards the ground. Great. Hannibal tries to give chase but she spits a blast of fire that he has to dodge, slowing him down. Judith swoops at her next, trying to breathe sleep at her but she avoids it easily.

Hannibal has no idea what’s going on with Snotlout and Hookfang, just that whatever they’re trying to give the dragon, he suddenly picks up and throws at the fireworm queen.

“Hookfang, what are you doing?!” yells Snotlout, “You need to eat that!”

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t supposed to happen,” Judith says in their minds, a bit panicked.

Hiccup sighs. “He’s doing for you what you were going to do for him, Snotlout.”

The other boy’s shoulders slump. He looks about to cry again, and Hannibal can’t even blame him. If this doesn’t work, then what are they going to do? They’re out of options and he doesn’t think they’d be able to get back in and out of the nest with more of whatever that stuff was, especially not if Hookfang didn’t eat it the first time.

The fireworm queen dives down to land next to him suddenly, lifting him off the ground by the neck. 

Snotlout yells in a panic, running forwards, only to get swatted aside by one of her wings.

To humans, that probably looks painful but Hannibal knows as a dragon that she’s not trying to hurt him. Even if he can’t exactly tell what it is she is doing – other than licking him and then she drops him back on the ground.

“Hookfang!” Snotlout cries, running forwards.

Colette runs to his side too, expression panicked.

For a long moment, there’s really nothing and the dragon just lies there motionless.

Then they both start frowning. “That’s weird,” Snotlout says, “He’s getting really hot.”

His scales are starting to shift color, almost as though fire is crawling through him under his skin. And then he jerks up, wings spreading and bursting into flames.

Hannibal doesn’t think he’s ever been quite so happy to Hookfang on fire in his life.

“She saved him,” Hiccup realizes, awed, “Her venom must’ve restarted his fire.”

Judith growls in thanks to the fireworm queen who growls back with something Hannibal is fairly certain is a you’re welcome before she takes off back into her nest.

They take off together, flying back to Berk.

Hookfang still looks tired, even when they get back, but he’s certainly better. Hopefully, he’ll be able to stay that way.

“I still wonder what would happen if you ate that stuff,” Colette remarks.

“You probably start on fire from the inside,” Fishlegs replies.

“Please no one tells the twins about this,” Hiccup requests, a little desperately.

“Promise,” Colette agrees.

Yeah, Hannibal really doesn’t want to know what would happen if they found out about that. He’s pretty sure it would be either nothing, they would burn inside out, or poison themselves. Or something else equally unpleasant he hasn’t even thought of yet.

Hannibal shifts back to his human form once they’re back on Berk, going over to pet Hookfang. “You should probably still let Hookfang rest for at least a day,” he comments.

“And remember that rest is for the wise,” Judith adds.

Snotlout nods a little. “My dad really knows nothing about dragons,” he says, swinging onto Hookfang’s back.

Hopefully Spitelout will stay out of Snotlout’s dragon business from now on, even if Hannibal’s sure he won’t.

But still, either way, it’s good to see them flying together again.

***

Life on Berk… is always hectic. There’s always jumping from one chaotic thing to the next, then the next and infinitely so on. Hiccup is well-accustomed to that, but his friends… well, some of his friends are still getting used to it. It’s hard to remember how new they are for all they’ve been in his entire life that matters.

So, when he ducks aside as another spray of splinters tears free of the bull’s eye Astrid just whacked with her axe, the three newly appointed Vikings enter and mutually jump at the chaos.

“I – I think you got them,” Hiccup tries tentatively. “All of them.”

“What’s with her?” Colette asks, brows basically disappearing into her hairline. Izzy is curled up in her arms, as is usual for her now.

“Astrid’s been killing inanimate objects all day,” Fishlegs says worriedly.

“She’s really wound up about the Flightmare,” Hiccup explains.

“Too bad she’s wasting her time,” Snotlout shrugs. “When the Flightmare comes, the Hoffersons freeze. Right, Astrid? I mean, you are a –” He flinches as her axe hits the wall an inch from his head. “Hofferson,” he squeaks.

“Okay, okay, let's take a deep breath,” Hiccup tries carefully, hands raised. Astrid is honestly terrifying. It’s so hard to breathe around her sometimes – she’s such a wild, violent fire, and when she gets wound up like this, you really have to watch your back. Or maybe that’s just old habits dying hard. Hiccup has no idea sometimes. He just knows that he’s… well, Astrid’s a lot in a mood like this.

“What exactly is the Fiightmare?” Hannibal asks, “We’re still new…ish.”

“It’s a dragon that comes through Berk and its surroundings every ten years when the sky lights up with Aurvandil's Fire,” Fishlegs explains. “Its spectral glow and banshee-like scream are unmistakable.”

Hiccup sighs tiredly. “Just because Aurvandil's Fire is coming, doesn't mean the Flightmare is, too.”

“Sure, it does,” Fishlegs argues. “It happens every time.”

“You were saying?” Astrid sasses.

Yeah, way to calm the temperament. In Astrid’s mood, she’s not going to stop until she actually kills something. “Thank you, Fishlegs. Your extensive knowledge of the Flightmare is timely, if nothing else,” Hiccup supplies in the driest tone he’s ever spoken in.

“I do fancy myself to be Berk's leading authority on the subject,” Fishlegs offers.

“What’s the problem with a dragon coming through?” Hannibal objects. “I mean, and? We have wild dragons all the time.”

“Every time it comes through, it attacks Berk,” Hiccup explains, “It’s a mess.”

“But we know how to train dragons now, right?” Judith interjects. “What’s the big deal?” Her question is mostly directed at Astrid, which, well…

“Last time it came through, the Flightmare killed her uncle,” Hiccup answers in a quieter tone, though from the look on Astrid’s face, she knows what he’s saying anyhow. “She’s a bit… touchy about it.”

“Oh,” Hannibal offers weakly. “That answers it.”

“I think we should try to find out more about it,” Judith queries. “It follows a specific path into Berk, right? Maybe it’s following some sort of food source. Maybe it feeds on something from the aura's energy.”

“I agree,” Hiccup concurs. “Let’s… Fishlegs and I will pull together everything we can find about the Flightmare, and… can you try to keep Astrid distracted? I think she needs somebody to talk to, and she’s probably gonna kill Snotlout. Literally.” He’s not even kidding there. And for as irritating as Snotlout is, Hiccup doesn’t – he can’t think about him getting hurt.

“I will,” Hannibal promises. No hesitation or thought, just blind agreement.

“Thank you,” Hiccup tells him, throat thick. It’s nice to have a sibling.

***

Astrid is… well, she’s been violently tense all day in a way even uncharacteristic for her. Hannibal’s worried about her, and he dragged her off to do some axe practice out in the woods just to keep her busy. She’s settled down a little, but only a little.

“That thing ruined my family name,” Astrid says finally when they sit down for a water break.

“How?” Hannibal asks, completely confused. What does the Flightmare have anything to do with her family? Yeah, it killed her uncle, which is awful, but many lost life and limb in the dragon war.

“Hofferons’s are known for being fearless,” Astrid mutters, scowling. “But when that thing came through, my uncle just… froze. I – I don’t know what happened. And of course, no one ever had the chance to ask him if it was because he was afraid.”

Hannibal lays his hand over her tightly clenched one. He hopes it’s relaxing. “Maybe we’ll be able to prove what really happened,” he offers hesitantly. “Or find out what really happened.”

“Either way, I’m not letting that thing reach Berk,” Astrid mutters lowly. “I’ve waited my whole life for this, and I’m not gonna let anyone stop me.”

“We’ll be ready for it when it comes,” he promises – uh, hopefully. He’s a little bit wary about this thing, whatever it is. Just a little bit.

***

“Going somewhere?” Judith asks curiously, maybe a bit cautious, as Astrid saddles up Stormfly. She’s been preparing for this all day for her and the other’s best efforts to keep an eye on her, and Judith is just a little worried about it. At least it’s a better use of time than preparing for the end of the world like twins apparently are.

“Nope,” Astrid lies without even blinking.

“The Flightmare?” Hannibal guesses.

She huffs. “Alright, fine, you win. I’m going after the Flightmare.”

“Alone?” Colette asks. “I mean, we’re still waiting for this research.”

“Yeah, alone,” Astrid replies, “I’m going to clear my family name. Map or not, I’m going.”

Judith heard about that. Between what Hannibal told her and what she’s heard, she knows enough about Fearless Finn Hofferson. That’s half of what everyone’s talking about. And Astrid saw that. Judith ahs seen enough of her own family members killed to know it’s not something that really ever goes away. The fear, the memories, the pain – though this isn’t gonna go very well.

“You know that could kill you,” Hannibal reminds. “We don’t really know anything about the Flightmare.”

“I’m not afraid of it,” she snaps. “And neither was my uncle.”

She’s not going to listen to anything anyone has to say. Not ideal when Berk is the one who’ll suffer the fallout if there’s a mistake. “What my brother’s saying is you getting yourself killed won’t prove anything about your family’s name,” Judith points out.

“Astrid,” Hiccup’s voice calls from behind them down the street. They pause, looking back as he and Fishlegs finally skid up. “Everyone,” he rephrases, “Fishlegs and I did our research about the Flightmare.” He crouches by a nearby rock, flattening out a map of Berk on it.

“This is the path of the Flightmare,” Fishlegs explains, pointing down a trail as the others crowd in to look it over. “For generations, it’s gone through the Northern Swamp on the way to the village. Same route every time. If I could only figure out why, we might be able to stop it.”

“I’m gonna need you guys to take care of Berk,” Hiccup says, straightening. “Toothless and I will see what we can find out there, and if the Flightmare gets past us, you’ll be the last line of defense for Berk.”

“I’m going with you,’ Astrid decides flatly with no room for refusal.

Hiccup looks at Hannibal, who shrugs, and he sighs. “Alright, you’ll come with us. You’ll ride with me. We’ll need to use Toothless’s cover to sneak up on that dragon. But we’re observing, at a distance.”

Judith’s pretty sure this is not going well, but Astrid nods right along, anyway, and they mount up.

***

The wait is… maddening.

Aurvandil’s Fire burns overhead, and Hannibal can already see why they call it fire. It’s an aurora, but a brilliant one, aqua light dancing in the sky, brightening the night.

Everyone is acting like the world is ending, which is ridiculous. They have dragons. They can defend themselves from a single dragon, even if it’s a powerful one. They’ve fought Whispering Deaths, Red Death, the Screaming Death, Changewings – can’t get much deadlier than that.

They’ve been waiting near Fishleg’s house, who’s continuing to research and reread whatever little is known about the Flightmare when Hannibal spots Snotlout outside.

Without Hookfang, which is odd.

“What are you doing out here?” Hannibal asks.

“I’m finding this long list of stupid things the twins insist I need for them to let me into their emergency bunker,” he grumbles.

“Seriously?” Colette asks dubiously, holding a sleeping Izzy in her arms. “Why is getting into this bunker so important? We’re perfectly safe out here. And we have dragons.”

“Speak for yourself,” he grumbles. “Hookfang’s in the bunker! Stupid dragon.” He scowls. “And they have yak butter parfait!”

“I thought we were supposed to be out here preparing for a probable dragon attack. Is the food they’re giving out really more important than the safety of Berk?” Hannibal asks disbelievingly.

“…yes,” Snotlout grumbles.

He lets out a long-suffering sigh.

“I’m sure we can make something better,” Colette offers.

“Really?” Snotlout asks skeptically.

“Sure, we can,” Colette agrees with a little evil smirk.

Hannibal shrugs. They are still waiting – and the world is not ending, contrary to popular belief. They have a reason to be worried, but people do still need to eat. And hey, if Snotlout’s that hungry…

“You guys are awesome,” Snotlout blurts out. “And never repeat that!”

“We won’t,” Hannibal supplies.

“Promise,” Colette agrees, and that’s how they introduce all of Berk to a good old-fashioned grilled-cheese sandwich.

They have to fry instead of toast, but it works just as well with a little fire going, and then people start lining up just to get some for themselves. Even Stoick drops by, which is… wow.

“How can you eat at a time like this?” Fishlegs complains when Hannibal brings a piece in for his friend.

“Not eating won’t chase the Flightmare away,” Hannibal points out dryly. “Or help us find what we need to know.”

Fishlegs emerges from his house a couple minutes later. “I think I know why the Flightmare follows that stream!” he reports gushingly. “It’s following its food source – the glowing algae in the stream!”

Of course. Judith had been theorizing it was something about the food source, but Hannibal had no ideas. He still knows embarrassingly little about the dragons in this world, and even those that were in his own. But food – that makes sense.

“It’s attacking because it… thinks we’re stealing it’s food?” Colette asks. “Can we stop stealing it’s food?”

“Not with the river running so close to town,” Fishlegs replies. “Hiccup’s going to need our help.”

He doesn’t need to say it twice. If Hiccup needs their help, they’re going to find him. Hannibal doesn’t like the thought of the three of them being out there alone, anyway. Last time Hiccup was off alone, well… Alvin happened. And Dagur. “I’ll bring Stormfly,” Hannibal replies. “Snotlout, who are you riding with?”

“I think I’ll stay,” he answers, lazily sprawled in front of the cooking fire. “And mind the fire, y’know?”

Hannibal shakes his head with fond exasperation and takes off.

***

“Okay, how do we stop the Flightmare before it reaches the village?” Astrid is saying up ahead as they swoop in closer.

“Fishlegs,” Hiccup replies.

“How’s he gonna help?”

“By bringing you some reinforcements,” Fishlegs calls cheerfully.

Astrid turns to see Hannibal, who waves half-heartedly, though mostly he’s just glad to see the trio are safe. He’s been worried – being off out in the open, chasing dragons is… well, dangerous. Really dangerous for them especially with all the enemies sniffing at their borders. It’s hard to say when something will go downhill.

“Stormfly!” Astrid calls happily, jumping back over to her dragon, who makes a happy sound at seeing her again. “Good to see you, girl. You too, Hannibal.”

“I’m glad you guys are okay,” Hannibal replies.

“The Academy was supposed to be on lock-down,” Hiccup says over his shoulder.

“I know,” Fishlegs replies, “But we were following the stream because I think I figured out a way to stop the Flightmare from reaching town.”

“We cut a new channel for the river,” Hiccup replies, pointing.

Hannibal saw the shimmering in the distance, but being up-close with the glimmering beauty of the river is…

Algae is something he’s obviously seen many pictures of, even seen varying amounts of a few times in his life, but never, ever has he seen glowing algae. It’s… almost unreal, except there it is, glittering right beneath him.

“And divert the flow of glowing algae out to the sea!” Fishlegs guesses.

“Exactly,” Hiccup confirms. “Toothless, Stormfly, Meatlug, it’s time to do a little emergency landscaping. Judith, watch our back. If the Flightmare finds us, you should be able to put it to sleep for long enough to cut this channel open.”

They circle around until finding a break in the river where it turns off close to the ocean, what clearly must be the Flightmare right up ahead. Its glow is brilliant against the night’s darkness, mostly a shimmering light blue with a few tinges of pale green and aqua. Similar in shade to the glowing algae down below.

It would be beautiful if it weren’t attacking Berk – though it is a little, anyway.

“It’s mine!” Astrid yells, diving to attack the Flightmare.

“Judith, cover her,” Hiccup calls, and the two break off to distract the dragon in question. Hannibal lets Astrid do her thing – she’s riding in front of him, anyway, and her and the Flightmare spin around each other, the Flightmare dodging several of Stormfly’s blasts.

“Pull back a little,” Colette calls from above. “We’re gonna dive it.”

Astrid pulls Stormfly back with a sharp nod, and Judith swoops in, a misty gray cloud sending the Flightmare dropping and flapping towards the ground below. They take off to finish cutting the stream – it’s surprisingly not hard, actually. Between Toothless, Meatlug, and Stormfly, they finish cutting and the water rushes away into the ocean. Hopefully that won’t hurt the town, though at least they’re leading the Flightmare away.

“We wait in the forest until it’s gone,” Hiccup says, motioning them towards the trees. “Just to make sure.”

They watch from the shadows until the dragon disappears into the night sky, following the algae trail far away into the sea.

***

Hiccup drags the town together to give a speech about the Flightmare and what happened. Colette doesn’t quite follow everything. She doesn’t think most of it is something she needs to hear out, anyway, but there’s a lot of talk about the Hoffersons, and Hiccup clears up that little misunderstanding.

Flightmares spray a paralyzing mist, apparently, which means she officially has one type of dragon that scares her. Right up with the other Deaths, because Whispering Deaths and the Screaming Death are still something to haunt her dreams. None of the others are so bad.

Paralysis, temporary or no, sounds terrifying. She’s not going there, ever, if possible.

And then, chaos away, everyone settles back to enjoy Aurvandil’s Fire and they settle back in for the food, which Snotlout is much too gleeful about. The twins, of course, drop by to ask if they can have some, and Snotlout immediately jumps the chance to send them running all over Berk for… most unnecessary supplies.

Just this once, Colette actually gets the need for the prank – they were pranking Snotlout the exact same way, too, and that was not funny. She sort of dodges pranks just because most of them are so very not funny. That included.

Judith finally gives them each one when they return out of sympathy somewhere near dawn – why are they and their dragon glowing? Never mind, Colette doesn’t want any answers. Algea, she’s betting.

“The bunker idea was a good one,” Judith remarks as the twins eat.

“I know, it was amazing,” Tuffnut crows.

“No, I meant seriously,” Judith replies. “A bunker – in case something happens? We are at war. We could need a place to fall back to and hide if Berk ever gets overrun or attacked or anything.”

It’s terrifying to think about, but it’s also the truth. Colette prefers not to worry… but Berk has been attacked so many times recently. And they are at least partly responsible for the island’s future, which is honestly terrifying, but… also maybe something she needs to come to terms with. It won’t just go away because it scares her.

“The cove?” Hiccup suggests.

“We need running water,” Hannibal says. “The cove’s got lots of it. This’ll need some more work.”

“We can fly out there at first light,” Hiccup suggests. “Start drawing something up. I’ll talk to my dad and –”

“Sleep first,” Judith interrupts. “Then work.”

“Yeah,” Tuff mutters dreamily. “Sleep sounds good.”

Chapter Text

“You know, I hate to admit it,” Hiccup remarks, leaning forwards and overlooking the boat in front of them as Snotlout and Hookfang dive to pull the dummy they’re practicing on from the boat in question. “But Snotlout actually looks like he's worked on his rescue training.”

Hookfang dives for the water. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Astrid snips, and Colette laughs.

Well, he’s Hookfang – he’s basically the essence of chaos itself, other than the twins. He’s going to do crazy stuff like this, and Snotlout is screaming as they plunge into the ocean. By the time they finally swoop out and crash onto the sea stack the other riders are gathered on, the fake person’s head falls right off.

“Another victim saved,” Snotlout brags until he sees what just happened and frantically throws the body aside with a shriek.

“Yeah, you got the victim part right,” Fishlegs snips, and Colette giggles again.

“Shut up, Fishlegs. Big deal. So his head fell off. It's not like he's on fire or anything.” Hookfang immediately breathes a fire blast and panics a second later, trying to stamp it out.

“I never want to be the one you rescue,” Colette decides, wide-eyed, but still laughing.

“How many ways did that thing die?” asks Hannibal.

“I counted at least four,” offers Fishlegs.

“Drowned, beheaded, burned, smashed to death,” Hannibal agrees.

“Dead from laughing,” Colette offers between wheezing snickers.

“We go next,” Judith calls telepathically, straightening under Colette. She braces herself for the ride and they carry the mostly destroyed straw body back to the ship for their own little dive-run.

Which would’ve been fine if when Colette scoops up the already scorched and squashed creature to share Judith’s back with, its arm didn’t fall off.

“You’re going to rip their arm off?” asks Snotlout snarkily the second they return.

Oh, they had that coming. “Uhuh. I’ll give them the Anakin treatment,” Colette agrees, smothering her laughter.

“What?” Hiccup asks, visibly confused.

Ohhh, right. It’s so hard to remember that Vikings don’t know what Star Wars is.

“Never mind,” she says.

“It was even the right arm,” Judith agrees, snickering.

They even got the scorched-ness perfect. Wow.

“Anyway…” says Hiccup slowly and redirects the conversation for everyone to proceed. Snotlout’s picking on everyone, probably still embarrassed by his own little failure, and all in all, it goes fine until Fishlegs nearly has Meatlug sit on Snotlout. Definitely a way to worsen the already tense state, then the others go through the exercise, Hiccup of course pulling a dead-perfect win, as always.

“Very impressive, Hiccup,” Fishlegs praises.

“Hey, Fishlegs. You need some help getting your nose out of Hiccup’s –”

“Snotlout!” Hiccup yelps, glaring.

“It's okay, Hiccup,” Fishlegs assures immediately, “He's just mad because he was dead last in the rescue competition. But what else is new?”

“Uh, guys, this isn't a competition,” Hiccup points out tiredly.

“News to me, too,” Colette shrugs, though her friends will somehow always turn everything into a competition, and it gets so exhausting. Can’t they ever just have fun? Why does it always have to be about who’s better or worse? Ugh. And since when did Fishlegs have such a volatile, nasty streak in him?

“Uh, yes, it is,” Tuff offers.

“You know, they say competition is the very essence of life itself,” Ruff agrees.

“It’s true. Weird that she said it like that, but it's true. It's always a competition,” Astrid pipes right in.

“We are a team,” Hiccup argues, confused and a little hurt. “Everyone has a role. No one person is better or more important than another.”

Colette looks up, completely confused when all the others break into laughter, like something about that is funny. “You don't really buy that, do you?” Snotlout asks.

“I do, actually. Yes,” Hiccup answers firmly, pausing at the looks. “Wait, do you all feel the way Snotlout does?”

“Uh, Hiccup? You ride Toothless, a Night Fury. And the Night Fury is at the top of the charts for intelligence, speed, accuracy, and, well… everything.” Meatlug grumbles, and Fishlegs pats her. “No offense, girl.”

“Why… why does it matter who’s best as long as we’re all good at what we can do?” Colette asks, confused. She looks between them, brows pinched with confusion. Why are Vikings always so… this? She’s been here for months, but they’ll never make sense. Sure, Toothless is the fastest, smartest, and everything-est, but she had no idea the others were jealous. Why would they be? They’re a team, they’re all friends, and they all have their own parts, so…?

“You want to know what I think?” Snotlout offers.

“No!” everyone yells.

“I think we'll never know who the best dragon trainer is because we don't have a level playing field.” he finishes anyway.

“Guys, Colette’s right,” Hannibal interjects. “We’re all part of a team. It doesn’t matter who’s the best or who’s not.”

“Hang on a second,” Fishlegs cuts in as though he said nothing, and Judith groans. “What if we did have a level playing field? What if we could prove once and for all, who's got the skills and who doesn't?”

“Trust me, Fishlegs. You don't want that,” Snotlout sasses.

“Oh, I think I do,” FIshlegs replies smugly, and Colette groans in exasperation. This isn’t going away anytime soon, is it?

***

Hiccup tries to think about something other than his overwhelming annoyance, but it’s really, really hard when he’s this irritated. This isn’t a competition. He can’t do… any of this without them, and why do they always have to be fighting each other when they have the future of Berk to look out for?

Yeah, he’s really, really annoyed. He tries not to be, but it’s hard.

Fishleg’s solution is Terrible Terrors, which is almost a joke when everyone knows how good Hannibal is with those things. Fishlegs is being very… not himself, which is also worrying as they prepare for tomorrow’s exercise.

Hiccup takes a green Terror he names Sharpshot.

The twins take identical gold ones. Hannibal takes another goldish one with a small patch of red that goes right to curling up in his arms. Fishleg’s is orange and red. Colette’s is green and red. Astrid’s is a bright aqua. Snotlout’s is purple, similar in color to Judith’s, who’s is purple with a few patches of blueish. This… is gonna go well.

By well, meaning really, really bad, and absolutely sucking.

He and Toothless work with Sharpshot until late into the night when they finally fall asleep together, then head out to the arena the next morning with little hope today will be any better than the previous. Arguments like this can take weeks to blow over. Having friends, unfortunately, means having to make their stupid, childish squabbles his own.

Which is irritating.

He doesn’t… he’s not…

He’s not better than them. He’s not. He never meant to make them feel like this, but Hiccup still feels responsible. He should’ve thought more about them when he and Toothless show off.

He doesn’t know why or how he managed to not realize that would be a problem. Of course, it is. Vikings are still, well, Vikings, dragons or not, and life is about having to be the best. Apparently. Almost makes him regret winning Thawfest all over again.

“Okay, time to show off what we've trained our Terrible Terrors to do,” Hiccup calls to the gang as they enter the arena.

“Why don't you go first, Snotlout?” Fishlegs asks, smirking. He’s so not himself. Hiccup really knows that feeling. Snotlout sort of has this way of getting inside your head and not letting you out, but this is exactly what Hiccup did back on Thawfest, and no one was happy about that. Fishlegs… shouldn’t be so hung up over this. He’s…

“Why don't you go first?” Snotlout snaps back.

“Fine. I'll go first.”

“Oh, no, you don't! I'll go first!”

“First, second, third... doesn't matter. 'Cause in the end, you're gonna come in last,” Fishlegs replies with no small measure of smugness.

Ughh, okay, time to break this up. “How about I go first?” Hiccup suggests, stepping between the bickering duo. “Especially since I don't care whether I win or not because this isn't about winning or losing.”

“Yeah, you keep selling that,” Snotlout sasses after him. “Loser!”

Ugh. Hiccup’s accustomed enough to his cousin’s sassiness to know when to just walk away, though it makes it no less hard to listen to. He’s so exhausting. Hiccup shows off the skills he taught Sharpshot – rapid firing. Cover fire – what he and Toothless are best at.

“Not bad,” Astrid shrugs. “You’re starting off the competition with a bang, Hiccup.”

“It is not a competition!” he snaps irritably.

“Not yet it isn't,” FIshlegs mutters with a feral glare on Snotlout that the two still haven’t broken.

“Well, what do you think?” Astrid asks, spreading her arms.

“What do we think of what?” Snotlout asks grumpily.

“My dragon's stealth skills,” Astrid replies.

“Right,” he scoffs. “His skills so stupid, he didn't even show up.”

“Or did he?” she throws back with a little smirk as the aqua Terror perches on Snotlout’s head.

Colette snickers. Judith laughs. “Nice,” she praises. “Bird’s-Eye!”

Judith’s Terror flutters out from the crate it was set in and lands on her shoulder. She motions towards the shadows, and the dragon darts soundlessly across the arena, ducking into the shadows and creeping along the wall. It’s movements are nearly soundless – a scout. Huh. Good one – very Judith.

“A scout?” Hiccup asks. “Nice.”

“Yeah, he’s amazing,” Colette agrees with a grin. She’s carrying Izzy again, which has Hiccup really wondering what she taught her Terror.

Astrid laughs. “I guess we were pretty much in sync, huh?” Judith laughs and the two high-five.

“I go next,” Colette calls excitedly, scooping up her Terror. “Snuggle.” She points at Hiccup, and the next thing he knows, a green and red spotted Terrible Terror is smacking into his chest, clinging onto the front of his tunic and purring.

He laughs at the unexpectedness and carefully curls an arm around the dragon that snuggles against him, purring.

Ah. So, Snuggle is the name and the order.

“That’s what you taught yours? To hug?” asks Snotlout in horrified disbelief.

“Aww.” Hannibal comes over to coo at the Terror. “That’s actually really sweet.”

“And completely useless,” Snotlout grumbles.

“Well no one would see it coming if it hugged your enemy in a fight, right?” Colette asks snippily.

“Cool,” Ruff offers.

“Then again, he can't do what Butt and Head can do,” Tuff adds, the twins motioning to their terrors who go to stand in a line opposite each other.

“Tell me you didn’t,” Judith pleads, instantly alarmed.

“Let me guess, they’re gonna run into each other?” Astrid asks.

“Wrong,” Tuff crows, and the dragons take off.

Hiccup winces as the two smash head-first into each other and drop, limping away.

“They flew into each other,” Ruffnut crows.

“Totally different,” her brother agrees.

“First of all,” Judith protests. “Flying head-first into each other will hurt them? Look at them. They’re so small. That could kill them.”

The twins freeze.

“Is it my turn?” Hannibal asks tentatively.

“Might as well give it a shot,” Astrid agrees with a shrug, and Hannibal’s gold Terror flies into his arms.

Hiccup expects a hand motion, or words maybe, but instead, he makes a strange deep growl in his throat that’s more Sun Dragon than human, trailing into some very… Terror-like chirps. The Terrible Terror growls back – mimicry? Like they’re… talking.

Wow.

Honestly, wow. He has no words.

Hannibal’s dragon dives off for a zig-zagging lap around the arena. Hannibal growls again, and the Terror does a spinning dive, firing almost perfectly aimed blast at a target on the other side of the room.  “Here we go,” Hannibal finishes, holding his arms out to regather his dragon when it comes back to him. “Kitty is the first bilingual dragon.”

“That’s awesome,” Judith comments, impressed.

Hiccup’s awed, too. Dragons can talk to each other – of course. He wishes he could do that.

“Prepare to be amazed at the smartest little dragon in the archipelago,” Fishlegs says, taking Iggy and shuffling a pile of drawings. Hannibal chirps at his terror again. Hiccup has no idea if that’s an actual word, or something he wants repeated. He’s curious, though – how could Fishlegs think anything could top Kitty?

He offers his dragon a series of drawings, telling it to get a random specific one. Iggy brings an apple back, as asked, much to Snotlout’s annoyance.

“Whatever. Lucky guess,” Snotlout grumbles.

“Okay, you choose one,” Fishlegs replies.

Snotlout yanks out the bucket drawing, only for Iggy to dump the bucket in question over his head. “So, he plays fetch,” Snotlout grumbles, flinging the object away.

“Well, what does your Terrible Terror do?” Fishlegs asks.

“This!” He yanks open the last crate, and out comes his purple Terror, immediately latching itself onto Snotlout’s non-bandaged leg.

“So…” Fishlegs snickers. “Let me get this straight. You trained him to bite you?”

“Try and pry him loose. I dare you. Took Gobber all day yesterday to get him off of this leg.” Snotlout proudly offers, holding out his left leg, not bandaged and definitely unpleasantly bitten. Probably swollen – that doesn’t look good. Hiccup really, really wishes his cousin would stop getting into chaos with Terrors.

“You're ridiculous. Just tell them I won, Hiccup,” Fishlegs requests with a snicker.

“You won? Ha! Get real!” Snotlout scoffs, “It wasn’t even close.”

“Whoa,” Astrid interjects. “My Terror’s stealthiness is pretty awesome too. Judith’s, too.”

“Kitty’s bilingual,” Hannibal points out. “She speaks Sun Dragon. You can’t tell me that’s not impressive. Not that I care if I win.” He pointedly side eyes the squabbling duo. And not to insult Fishlegs, and Hiccup’s not gonna outright say it, obviously, but Hannibal really wiped the floor with all of them.

“Hey, our trainees ram their heads together at high speed. That takes brains!” Ruffnut complains.

“Yeah. Really hard, rock-like brains,” Tuff nods along.

“Guys, come on,” Hiccup interjects, annoyed. “Look, it doesn’t matter who’s best or who isn’t. We all have a role to play. Look, without Judith’s scouting, Astrid’s stealth, Snotlout’s, uh, annihilation,” he settles on. “Fishleg’s brilliance, Hannibal’s creativity, Colette and the twin’s… chaos, my cover fire would mean nothing.”

“It’s still obvious I won,” Fishlegs argues.

“Oh, come on!” Snotlout yells, irritated.

The argument is abruptly interrupted at an angry nearby growl.

Meatlug.

***

“Bird’s-Eye, go!” Judith calls, motioning as she sprints for the exit. They run for the arena, circling all the way around to where the source of the growl was, now abruptly stops. The light telepathic link shows her a flash of Alvin, Savage, and…

Mildew?

Mildew is helping the Outcasts? Actually, she’s not too surprised.

By the time they arrive, Meatlug is already gone, taken captive by the Outcasts.

“Those tunnels go all over the island. He could be going anywhere,” Hiccup sighs.

“They don't really go "all over" the island,” Tuffnut interjects. “Like, six yak farms.”

“A couple of sheep pens,” Ruff adds.

“Mildew’s cabbage field.”

“Gobber's outhouse,” the twins chorus, looking at each other and shuddering in disgust. Ugh. Judith didn’t need the image.

“What?” Tuff shrugs at all the looks. “We spent a lot of time in those tunnels. It's a tunnel of fun.”

“What way is the fastest to the beach?” Hannibal asks.

“The one to the beach!” Tuffnut offers. “The tunnel that goes to the secluded beach, on the far side of the island. I can't believe you haven't been there. It's white sand. So soft on your little toes.”

Hiccup sighs. “Okay. That answers that. Let’s mount up.”

“Hopefully this rescue is better than the last,” Colette supplies dryly.

“Yeah,” Tuff agrees. “It’d be really hard to drown, behead, burn and crush a dragon to death.”

Wow, he remembers that? Why does he remember that?

The outcast ship is a fast find. Brid’s-Eye spots and reports it, and they fly in, only for Alvin to hold Meatlug at sword-point, the threat obvious.

“Great. What do we do now?” Colette asks.

“We can’t just leave her there,” Fishlegs frets.

“We won’t,” Hiccup promises, “But we can’t go in there ourselves. We’ll use our Terrors to attack. They won’t see that coming. Astrid, distract them. Judith, take out the sails. Kitty and Sharpshot can get Meatlug free. Fishlegs, have Iggy get Alvin’s weapons out of there. The rest of you, help cover.”

Judith makes a noise of agreement, now dragon, and looks at her Terror, nodding towards the ship.

“I’m going to have to apologize to Snuggle for telling her to hug Alvin,” Colette complains.

“You can have her hug Savage,” Hiccup offers dryly.

“That’s not any better,” Colette replies with a shudder, but the Terrors dive down as planned. Snuggle goes for Savage, as asked, which is amazing, and Judith laughs at the ensuing chaos. The twins send theirs after Mildew, which she wholeheartedly approves right now.

Snotlout of all people is the one who actually gets Meatlug freed by throwing his Terror through the last rope holding her.

Hiccup dives a final dive-toll to take out the Outcast ship, and they circle back towards Berk.

“See?” Colette calls. “No delimbing, no burning or y’know. Anything.”

“I’d say I can’t believe Mildew is a full-fledged Outcast, but actually, I can,” Hannibal mutters from behind Colette on Judith’s back.

“I’m not surprised,” she sends to him. Though now that the immediate threat is gone, Judith is worried about what it’ll mean, long-term. Mildew betrayed them of course, and… how long? “We do hafta wonder how long he was working with the Outcasts.”

“What happened on Outcast Island seemed so real,” Hiccup replies, humor fading. Toothless looks back up at him with a quiet sound of worry. “I guess I wasn’t really in my best state of mind that day.”

That’s one way to put it. Judith still wishes she could’ve just completely obliterated them, but murder isn’t exactly… well, it takes a toll. She knows that, but whenever she thinks about Alvin and what Hiccup and Toothless went through, it makes her so, so angry. The worst part is that this isn’t close to over. It’s just starting.

Especially with Dagur and now the Screaming Death.

But… at least Izzy has a few other friends? Maybe. Judith can say she knows her Terror will be sticking around, and so will Hannibal and Colette’s. Probably Sharpshot, too.

At least they have a few more allies?

Chapter Text

Hiccup and Fishlegs call a break from the constant training to focus on studying dragons for a while. Hannibal is more than a little grateful for that. He thinks all of them could really use with something else to focus on. And it’s been so long without any signs of another attack, He can’t help that he’s starting to tentatively hope that maybe it’s further off in the future than they first thought. Maybe.

They’re all paired up into groups to paint tag dragons and when he, Judith, and Colette are done with their group, they fly back to Berk together, getting on with their usual work.

At least, up until Sharpshot comes flying up, chirping at them.

“Looks like that’s for us,” Colette says, crouching to let it hop onto her arm and pulling a piece of parchment off, that was tied to its leg.

“Yeah,” Judith agrees.

Hannibal comes over, to look at the paper over her shoulder. It’s a message from Hiccup, asking them to bring Fishlegs and Snotlout to Dragon Island as soon as they can.

“And of course something had to go wrong,” Hannibal says, a bit dryly. He just hopes it’s nothing too serious but they better get moving.

They get there to see no Astrid or Hiccup and Snotlout just flops out on the ground to take a nap while they wait.

“Well, look who it is,” Hiccup’s voice calls cheerfully suddenly and Hannibal looks up to see him and Astrid flying in. “Snotlout is right here on Dragon Island.”

Hannibal raises an eyebrow. Why the specificness?

“Astrid was just talking about you,” Hiccup calls, as Snotlout sits up.

Astrid glares at Hiccup.

“Hmhm, of course she was,” Snotlout says with a lazy grin.

Ugh. Hannibal never quite gets used to this. At least it’s better when it’s in Astrid’s direction than in Judith’s.

Hiccup makes kissy noises in Astrid’s direction, smirking a little.

“Did something happen?” Hannibal asks, looking between Hiccup and Astrid. Because clearly he’s missing something. It makes him momentarily think about the moment he and Astrid had that, that they’ve never talked about again. He’s not sure he’s quite ready to think about that yet.

Astrid glowers at Hiccup, ignoring Hannibal’s question entirely. “Say it and those will be the last words you ever speak.”

“Okay,” Colette says flatly, no less confused and maybe slightly amused, “We definitely missed something.”

“Well,” Hiccup offers, far too cheerfully, “Astrid didn’t believe airmail would work.” And how does that have anything to do with Snotlout? On second thought, Hannibal’s not sure he wants that question answered.

“Why not?” Judith asks. “Did you know people used to use birds to carry mail? And dragons are a lot more reliable than that.”

“Well, obviously I didn’t know that,” Astrid grumbles, clearly still annoyed.

“I knew it would work!” Fishlegs pipes up, brightening, “So, uh, what's the emergency?”

“We've been seeing dragons painted green on crescent island,” Hiccup explains.

“That's your emergency?” Snotlout demands indignantly, “I was in the middle of something very important.”

“You were sound asleep,” Fishlegs replies flatly.

“Beauty Rest,” Snotlot crows, “Do you think this – ” He points at his face. “Just happened?”

“Well, actually,” Colette pipes up, “I think you’re kind of born the way you look and it doesn’t have anything to do with how much you sleep.”

“Why are we even talking about this?” Judith asks, looking close to facepalming. Hannibal entirely seconds that.

“Fishlegs does it make any sense to you that those dragons would be there” Hiccup asks, thankfully entirely focused on the task at hand and ignoring everyone else.

“No, they shouldn't be. Crescent island is clearly marked as purple,” Fishlegs replies, as they hover over the map Hiccup’s spread out.

“That's what I thought,” Hiccup agrees.

“So we’re wondering why the green dragons are going between islands?” Hannibal muses, “It is a little strange.” He doesn’t know if it’s emergency kind of strange, but it’s… weird.

“First of all it's not green. It's pistachio,” Fishlegs corrects, “They belong on Tall tree island. That's where I tagged them.”

“Yeah. Well, your pistachio dragons aren't where they supposed to be,” Astrid replies.

“That’s weird,” Fishlegs says, frown growing.

“We need to figure this out. Let's check out tall tree island,” Hiccup decides, swinging back on Toothless and they all take off together.

“Sounds awesome. I was wondering what I was gonna do with the rest of my day,” Snotlout remarks, even though three seconds into the flight, he turns Hookfang around and goes flying back to Berk.

Well, they probably don’t need his help anyway.

***

There could probably be a fairly simple explanation for what’s happening here but Hiccup’s worried. Something just seems way too odd about this, especially after everything they’ve been observing about how these specific dragons live. It doesn’t make sense for dozens of them to start randomly island jumping at once.

It also doesn’t make sense that they’re still flying over open water. “I don't understand. We should be there by now.”

“Maybe we're off course,” Astrid suggests.

“I don't do off course, Astrid. According to my map, it should be right...” Fishlegs trails off, looking around.

“Well, it’s clearly not right here,” Hannibal offers.

“Even if we were off course we'd still be able to see it from here,” Hiccup objects, his unease growing. Something’s wrong.

“Maybe we need to fly higher in the air so we’ll see the island faster?” Colette suggests.

“If… something happened to the island, we should see it sooner if we were closer to the water,” Hiccup objects.

“Well, an island can't just disappear,” Astrid argues.

“Earthquake maybe?” Fishlegs suggests tentatively.

“I was gonna suggest that,” Colette agrees with a frown.

“We should have felt it,” Hannibal argues.

“We were flying,” Hiccup points out, but if there was an earthquake that bad, there should have been some wave evidence probably. Maybe. “But yeah…” He doesn’t understand this. “Maybe a volcano?”

“I think we really would’ve seen evidence of that,” Colette objects.

True. But that just leaves him completely lost.

“Wrath of Thor, wrath of Odin?” Fishlegs pipes up.

All heads turn to stare at him.

“What?!” he whines, “Just throwing out possible explanations?”

“I think we were hoping for an explanation a bit more… practical,” Hannibal argues, “No offense to your religious beliefs.”

Judith growls a little. “There’s got to be evidence of the island still out there,” her voice says in Hiccup’s mind, “Maybe someone needs to dive down and see if there’s something under the water that we can see.”

That’s… not actually a bad idea. “We can do that,” Hiccup agrees, “Everyone except people with maps are going for a dive.”

Fishlegs is keeping the map so he stays out of the water and everyone else dives down.

Toothless ducks under the water quickly, and Hiccup tries not to focus on how much he actually hates being under water. He’s nearly drowned so many times and its stupid that sometimes when he’s way out in the water, that’s all he can think about. That he sees the ocean every day, and every single time he’s out flying helps, but it’s still… Well, not his favorite place to be.

They come up for air and then go down a second time. It’s hard to see much but he’s almost certain he sees huge chunks of rock floating in the general area where the island is supposed to be. And there’s still a base for the island left, even if it’s sunk way below the water level.

Toothless finally flies back above the surface and Hiccup tries to catch his breath as he looks to the others. “This is weird,” he says, still breathing heavily.

“Strange floating rocks?” Astrid guesses, “Yeah, saw that too.”

“At least we know we’re in the right spot, since something used to be there,” Hannibal offers with a worried frown.

“This is creepy,” Colette says with a shudder.

“It’s like something made it collapse,” Hiccup says.

“Everyone, look!” Astrid calls urgently. Hiccup looks up, following her gaze to where three Monstrous Nightmares are flying overhead, and they’re marked from being from Sunstone Island.

“Looks like we better check out there,” Colette suggests tentatively.

“Sunstone island it is,” Hiccup agrees.

“Ah, Sunstone island. Pristine beaches, avertable smorgasbord of fine mineral deposit from Meatlug,” Fishlegs comments as they fly.

Hiccup’s really, really hoping they aren’t going to fly up to see another disappeared island entirely. They don’t – but what’s left doesn’t look much better. It’s barely bigger than a sea stack. The only dragon that’s able to land is Meatlug, and all the others are left clinging to the rocky walls and trying not to fall into the ocean.

“Really amazing beach,” Colette says, blinking.

“I thought it was bigger,” Fishlegs protests.

“Yeah, look at all the blue sand,” Hannibal agrees dryly.

“I – I have to say the beaches are a bit of a disappointment,” Hiccup can’t help concurring. But mostly, he’s just getting scared. Something happening to one island would be one thing but this is a lot more than just that. It… This doesn’t make sense.

“One island is missing and one island has been sunk,” Fishlegs says, panickily.

“I think we should go for another dive,” Hannibal advises and Hiccup nods his agreement.

They dive down together and it’s easy to see the same falling apart pieces of massive rock down below the surface here. Whatever happened to the previous island is what happened to this one, too.

“I still have one question,” Judith pipes up, “Why is one tree left behind? What is it about that tree?”

“I don’t think that’s the most important thing here,” Fishlegs protests, “If the islands are gone, where do the dragons go?’

“Good question,” Hiccup agrees, frowning, “Dragons live in specific places for specific reasons.”

“The food they eat, where they nest,” Fishlegs seconds.

“If they lose their homes, it could endanger their whole species,” Astrid agrees.

“We need to figure out what's going on. Now. Let's head back to dragon island,” Hiccup suggests. And they need to be fast.

“If it’s still there,” Astrid points out bluntly.

Yeah, that’s really something he can’t quite fathom. There’s so much history with that island. He can’t imagine it just not being there when they get there, but he’s frankly terrified that they’re going to show up to see just that.

“Maybe I can try talking to the dragons,” Judith suggests, “To see if that helps.”

Well, that’s probably somewhere to start.

***

There’re dragons of nearly every color they’ve marked by the time they get back to Dragon Island. And Judith can clearly sense the panic of the dragons flying in. She flies over to a few of them, nudging at their minds, asking a “What’s wrong?”

She senses responses from all of them at once, mostly saying that their island collapsed, which she already guessed.

“But how?” Judith asks.

She gets answers about that from all around, at once.

“Ground shaking.”

“Loud noise.”

“Fell into the ocean.”

“Something huge underground,” the last one says, and that’s what makes her freeze.

“Show me,” she requests, heart pounding. Please tell her she’s wrong about this. This really, really can’t be because –

The dragon shoves an image of it into her mind. She can’t see much, just a flash of something white with red eyes and huge. And screaming.

Ahd she’d recognize all of that anywhere.

Judith turns away from the other dragons, flying back to her friends instantly.

Hiccup is leaning over a map, marking out a very obvious path that the islands are being destroyed in.

“I think it’s the Screaming Death,” Judith says, projecting the image into the others’ minds.

Hiccup freezes. “Yeah, that – that would explain a few things,” he breathes.

“Great,” Colette groans.

“But if it’s the Screaming Death and it’s following that path, that means it’s heading right towards us,” Fishlegs says, alarmed. “And then it will be headed right towards Berk.”

“We can’t let it get past here,” Judith says firmly, just trying to breathe. They chased the thing away once. They should be able to do it again. Right?

“We can’t let it get here at all,” Hiccup objects, “We have to try turning it away. If it destroys Dragon Island, all the dragons out there are going to overwhelm Berk. We can’t handle that many there.  Toothless, we're going back out.” He jumps onto his dragon’s back.

“We should warn Stoick,” Hannibal speaks up. “In case it does get past us to Berk, they need to be ready.”

She doesn’t want to see the second village she’s come to call her home going up in flames. Yeah, they have to deal with this fast.

Hiccup nods, writing up a quick message for backup which he sends off on a Terrible Terror, before they all fly out together, leaving Fishlegs and Astrid behind to hold the position on Dragon Island, in case it gets past them.

“You know what I’m really wondering?” Judith asks, “Why didn’t it eat that one tree?”

“Maybe you can ask it,” Hannibal tells her dryly.

Yeah, she’s actually going to keep that in mind.

They fly for Thor Rock, getting there in time to see it’s already falling apart into the water. And the ground is shaking.

“I think it’s here,” Judith warns. She can sense something close by, and –

Then they hear a far too familiar screaming, right as the enormous dragon flies out of one of the holes in the ground.

“Does that thing look different to you?” Colette squeaks.

“Bigger,” Hiccup supplies, voice tinged with alarm, “Much bigger. Someone's been eating their vegetables.”

“More like everyone else’s vegetables,” Colette objects, panicked.

The Screaming Death roars. Judith has no idea if it’s seen them or not. All she does know is that her head is spinning from the noise and it’s hard to focus on staying in the air with that thing roaring. It thankfully stops quickly, diving back into the rocks.

“The Screaming Death has been destroying all the islands. It must be tunneling underneath and cause them to collapse in on themselves,” Hiccup realizes.

“But why?” Colette objects.

“And why did it leave that tree behind?” Judith asks. So what if she’s a little fixated on that question?

The Screaming Death flies out of another hole, knocking more of the island into the sea. It growls when it sees them.

“Hannibal, can you lead it away?” Hiccup asks.

Hannibal growls affirmatively, starting to glow as he dives forwards.

The Screaming Death growls at him, spitting fire and Hannibal dives aside but it doesn’t give chase. It’s… not following him?

“Well, looks like it’s getting bigger and smarter and it doesn’t like shiny things anymore,” Hiccup calls.

Not good.

They’re going to have to find a new weakness. Fast.

“Judith, can you talk to it?” Hiccup asks.

“I can try,” she replies, flying forwards, nudging at it’s mind in an effort to get it’s attention.

The Screaming Death growls lowly at her.

“Hey,” she tries, “Why are you here?”

“My mother is out here,” the creature replies. It feels hurt and angry and so lost.

Somehow, that is never the reason she imagined it would be doing all of this. For all that it’s terrifying, the thing is still a baby. “Your mother isn’t on Dragon Island or Berk,” Judith replies, pushing a mental image of each island at the dragon.

“She wouldn’t leave me,” the Screaming Death growls.

Okay, that actually hurt. But she doesn’t know how to reason with it in this state. It’s angry, and it’s terrified and alone, and there’s very, very little anyone can do for it. “You were stolen – ” she starts trying to explain.

It snarls at her, spitting fire, and Judith dives out of the way. It flies past her, heading for Dragon Island.

“We’ve got a problem,” Judith calls to the others, “It think it’s mother is on Berk.”

“Because that’s where it hatched… Great,” Hiccup sighs.

“Maybe it’s mother is on Outcast Island,” Colette proposes tentatively, “Or you know, at least we could try to convince it that she is, so it goes to create chaos there instead.”

Judith nudges the creature’s mind again, trying to project the mental image of Outcast Island and then tries to create an image of a Whispering Death that’s locked up there but the Screaming Death just roars at her and keeps flying.

Well, it’s definitely not gonna be listening to that right now. They’re going to have to come up with something else.

Ooh, right!

“You forgot to eat this tree,” Judith says, shoving it the mental image of the island it left behind.

“I don’t care about the tree,” it practically roars at her and keeps flying.

Well, so much for that.

Toothless fires a plasma blast it, trying to change it’s course but only pauses to shoot a fire blast back at them before it keeps going.

“Does anyone have any brilliant ideas?” Judith asks.

“The brilliant idea didn’t work!” Colette yells back, pointing at the glowing Hannibal.

“What about putting it to sleep?” Hiccup asks.

Judith dives for it, breathing sleep at it. The first couple shots miss, with how much diving it’s doing and it breathes in a little of the last one but it’s not nearly enough to take the thing down.

Toothless dives at it again next, spitting plasma blasts, only for the thing to bat at it with his tail, sending them both spiraling down. She hears Toothless’ distant cry and looks down, as they both go splashing into the sea far below.

Hiccup swings back onto Toothless’ back fast enough, before she can consider going down after him, but the Screaming Death has already flown past them, heading for Dragon Island. And they’re hopelessly far behind it and even when they do catch up, Judith has no idea what they could even do.

She’s still trying to catch up with the thing when it reaches Dragon Island. Fishlegs on Meatlug comes flying towards it, spitting lava at it.

“Fishlegs!” Hiccup calls, worried, “What are you doing, you need backup!”

“Oh, I've got backup,” Fishlegs calls back.

Judith looks around, momentarily confused, only for a group of other Gronickles to come swarming up from behind him, firing lava blasts at the Screaming Death.

The dragon howls, trying to dive past them but there’s too many.

Astrid swoops in seconds later, leading a group of Deadly Nadders to attack it. That’s actually so clever. Judith doesn’t know how she never considered herself, how effective that could be.

She dives past them, swooping down from Dragon Island and landing on a high rock cleft. “What are you doing?” asks Colette, confused.

“More help couldn’t hurt, could it?” she asks, before she starts calling as a dragon – a message to all the dragons to come here and fight that thing.

Dragons of every species come flocking in almost immediately, joining the others in fighting the thing off. The Screaming Death howls and dives past all of them to go underground.

Not good.

“I'll try to force it back to the surface,” Hiccup calls, diving down into the tunnel after it.

Judith keeps calling for the other dragons, more and more of which are coming. And when the Screaming Death finally resurfaces again, they’re ready, attacking it with everything they have.

And that’s when Judith finally sees Hookfang and Barf and Belch up in the sky.

“Hey, we got your message!” Tuffnut yells, waving.

Wow, she was beginning to think they weren’t coming. Or maybe that Stoick wanted them to stay back on Berk as part of a defense line.

“Well, one of us did,” Snotlout snarks, as their dragons join the barrage of firing.

And from there, the fight doesn’t last long. There’s too many dragons fighting back, even for the Screaming Death, and it finally turns away, howling as it goes, taking off the opposite direction.

“I don't think the Screaming Death is gonna mess with Dragon Island anymore,” Astrid says a bit smugly, as they watch the thing retreat away over the water.

“Hopefully,” Colette agrees.

Judith feels a little bad over how upset the thing is – it just wants it’s mother. But there’s really nothing they can do about that.

The sudden rumbling of rock has her looking down, though, to see rocks on the island breaking apart and sinking. The island is collapsing. All this and it was too late?

“Oh, man, but it doesn't stop it from sinking,” Hiccup says, a bit panicked.

“Lava blast!” Fishlegs calls urgently, and Meatlug starts spitting lava down below, filling up the holes. The other Gronickles join, and it stops the rocks from sinking as the lava cools.

That’s…

Wow.

“The lava's stabilizing the island!” Hiccup realizes, brightening, “Fishlegs, Meatlug, you too were the heroes today.”

Fishlegs mumbles awkwardly at the praise, hugging Meatlug who licks him in response.

“Hey, this gives me an idea,” Judith pipes up, “What if we get the dragons help to rebuild Dragon Island a little more than just this?”

***

They do try to rebuild Dragon Island a little. Hiccup is almost surprised at how well that’s going but it works with Judith being able to communicate with them. The Gronickles spit lava onto areas of rock that are just beneath the surface and they’re able to build it up and extend it outwards and they get the help of other dragons to bring in huge pieces of rock from the other destroyed islands to put right around Dragon Island.

It takes a long time but it’s working. And Hiccup’s glad at being able to help the dragons here this much.

“I still don’t know why we’re doing this,” Tuffnut comments, as the others work.

“We’re giving the dragons more space to live,” Hiccup replies.

“And making sure they won’t all start moving to Berk,” Hannibal adds.

“Why would we want to do that?” Ruffnut asks.

Yeah, okay, not really a conversation that’s going to make sense for the twins. “Because Berk can’t handle that many,” Hiccup points out.

“But if it can’t handle more dragons, that means…” Tuffnut trails off.

“More explosions!” Ruffnut replies, a bit gleefully.

“So why’d we want to stop that?” Tuffnut agrees.

“Think of it as, the dragons needing more food than they could ever get as it is, with so many islands gone,” Hiccup offers finally, though the twins have already wandered off to Barf and Belch.

Well, they’ll just have to keep working on this. It’s certainly a nice distraction from all the… other problems they’ve been worrying about.

“I wonder if the Screaming Death is the Whispering Death’s alpha or something,” Colette comments, as they work.

“I think so,” Hiccup agrees, “All Fishlegs and I were able to find for sure is that dragons like that only hatch one every hundred years or so. That’s the good news.”

“That’s good news?” Astrid asks.

“Well, it means we won’t have to worry about another one of these things,” Judith offers.

“What’s the bad news?” Snotlout queries.

“Yes! What's it going to be? The end of the world?” Tuffnut asks hopefully.

“Close,” Hiccup replies flatly.

Tuffnut deflates. “Uh, I was kidding.”

“The bad news it’s still out there, and some day, it will come back to Berk.” This fight isn’t over yet.

“Well, we chase it away once already,” Hannibal replies firmly, “When it comes back, we’ll be ready for it.”

Hiccup can only hope that he’s right.

***

It starts like just another normal morning, with Hiccup getting ready to take Toothless out on a flight when he sees out the window, Judith and Hannibal walking towards his house. And they both look worried.

He swings onto Toothless’ back, flying out the window to land in front of them.

“Have you seen Colette?” Judith beats him to saying anything.

He frowns. “I haven’t.”

“She wasn’t at our house so we thought she might’ve come over here,” Hannibal explains.

That is weird. The three of them don’t do everything together all the time but it’s not really like Colette to vanish without saying a word either. “What about Izzy?” Hiccup asks.

“She’s gone, too,” Hannibal replies.

“Maybe she took her over to Snotlout’s?” Hiccup suggests, nudging Toothless and they take off. “I’ll meet you back here.”

He does drop by at Snotlout’s, only to hear that they haven’t seen her. Snotlout and Hookfang come with him, though. He passes by the twins’ house on the way back, and they join up with him, landing outside Hiccup’s house.

Judith is just reemerging from her own house, eyes glowing silver.

“She thought she’d try tracking,” Hannibal offers in explanation.

Riiight. It’s sometimes easy to forget that she can do that.

Judith leads the way, heading into the woods, and the rest of them follow. She sends Birdeye’s out ahead to see if she sees anything and the terrible terror comes flying up, screeching, moments later.

“That way,” Judith translates and they take off.

Hiccup was almost expecting to see something very wrong, not that seeing Colette and Izzy both stuck in a dragon trap that’s struck up from a tree isn’t that, but he was expecting something worse. So he’s frankly just relieved to see that this is all that happened. Even if it looks very unpleasant.

“Uh, hi!” Colette offers, waving.

Izzy squawks, wings flapping.

“No, no, don’t start on fire,” Colette hastily soothes, lightly patting Izzy’s head, “We’ll be fine. It’s fun up here, right?”

Izzy chirps a little, settling down. Well, she’s good at keeping her calm at least - which is good or she’d probably already be on fire.

Snotlout, Ruff, and Tuff just start cackling.

“You got yourself stuck in a net?” Snotlout asks between bouts of laughter.

“Not even we’d manage that,” Tuffnut says.

Okay, it is a little funny, not that Hiccup’s gonna laugh about it. “What happened?” he asks, coming over to the tree and climbing up the side, leaning over to work on getting the trap open.

“I took Izzy out for an early morning walk - er, flight.” She shrugs. “And then…”

“Got struck up from the tree!” Ruffnut agrees, grinning.

“Yeah,” she says with a huff, “Hey, it’s more fun if you don’t need a bathroom break.”

Hiccup finally gets the trap open and they fall, Izzy flapping to safety and Toothless diving to catch Colette before she hits the ground from that insane height.

“Are you alright?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she grumbles. Seems to be fine, other than embarrassed, which is fair enough.

“We need to deal with these dragon traps,” Hiccup muses, looking around, “We don’t really want wild dragons getting stuck in them.”

Sounds like they have their work for the day already laid out.

***

Trying to show everyone how to deactivate the traps go as well as Hiccup imagined it would. Meaning, Snotlout trying to show off and getting stuck in one instead, and the twins nearly getting themselves beheaded. But at least everyone else seems to have most of an idea of what they’re doing.

“If you don’t want to deal with traps, you can take a day off,” Hiccup offers Colette, “You know, after earlier…”

She winces a little. “Thanks. I mean, it doesn’t really seem fair to make all of you do my part but - ”

“It’s okay,” he promises, patting her arm and she gives him a tiny smile.

“Hey, we can help cover your part too,” Hannibal agrees.

“Yeah, and us! Totally,” Tuffnut crows, from where him and Ruffnut are shoving each other back and forth. Hiccup doesn’t think they even know what’s being discussed.

“You guys know what you’re doing, right?”

“What kind of question is that?” Tuffnut asks.

“A necessary one,” he replies, bluntly.

“Absolutely…” Ruffnut trails off.

“No idea,” her brother finishes.

“Knew it,” Judith says dryly.

“Guys,” Hiccup says with a sigh, “We’re clearing dragon traps. It’s very dangerous for you and for your dragon.” And… actually, this is a terrible idea. He doesn’t even know what he was thinking, trying to bring them into this. “You know what? Forget it. You guys stay, here where you can’t get in trouble.”

“Actually,” Ruffnut corrects, “We can get into trouble pretty much anymore.”

“Remember that empty room?” Tuffnut laughs.

Judith sighs. “You’re really proving Hiccup’s point.”

“What point?” Ruffnut objects.

“I - I just don’t know if I can trust you guys out there right now,” he says bluntly, “This is serious.”

Both the twins look suddenly wounded. “Wow, that was harsh,” Tuffnut complains.

“Yeah, ouch,” Ruffnut agrees.

Okay, okay he didn’t mean to that to hurt to their feelings – he genuinely didn’t even think it would. He thought they’d be glad to just… get to fool around. But they can be more serious than they often act like. It’s just hard to guess when those times are. “No, I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just – ” He fumbles, trying to think of a way to explain it. He knows what it’s like for everyone to act like he’s completely useless. He really didn’t mean to give them that feeling. Just…

“No, we get it. You think we’re useless,” Tuffnut replies.

“I didn’t say that,” he protests.

“He’s saying,” Judith cuts in, “That your tendency to get into trouble could get you killed right now and we really don’t want that, okay? Not that it means your incapable of anything.”

The twins just take off, insisting that they’re going to be fine.

Hiccup really hopes that’s the truth. But oh, who is he kidding? Of course, it won’t be.

***

It’s late afternoon when the riders meet up back at the Academy – or at least, when most of them do. Hannibal isn’t surprised that the twins aren’t here, but he’s a little worried that Hiccup isn’t.

“Should we go look for him?” he asks.

“I’m sure Hiccup has things under control,” Astrid replies, shrugging.

Maybe. Probably, but he doesn’t know if it’s a chance he wants to take right now.

“So unless we see a fire, we probably don’t need to worry,” Colette offers, petting Izzy’s head when she flies over to perch on her shoulder.

Yeah, well that probably is true.

But that, of course, happens to be the moment that Birdseye flies into the arena, screeching.

Judith looks instantly worried. “So you were saying something about a fire?” she asks, somewhere between freaked out and amused at once.

“There is a fire?” Astrid asks, stiffening.

“Yeah. Out in the woods.”

“And in this weather, it could head right to town,” Astrid realizes.

“Let’s go,” Hannibal urges.

Judith takes off to shift, and he and Colette swing onto her back. They fly out to the woods together. The forest fire is bad. He can see that clearly from up here; it’s spreading quickly and out in the woods, Hiccup is flying around, trying to work on putting it out. It looks like there’s a giant Typhoomerang down there with him – which hopefully isn’t going to be a problem because they really don’t have time to deal with it right now.

“We need to get some water,” Hannibal calls, breathlessly.

“Get the brush wet,” Astrid yells as she takes off, “That should slow the fire down.”

They take off together, briefly flying by where they see Stoick to tell him about the fire before taking off again. He comes to join them on Thornado before long and they work on dumping water through the woods to slow the flames, whenever they get there. At least they’re starting to die a little but it’s still burned through so much of the woods.

“Guys, we could use some more wings out here,” Hiccup calls through the trees ahead of them.

“Wings?” Astrid calls back, confused.

It takes Hannibal a moment to catch on too. “Oh, I see what you mean.”

Judith and Astrid both come out there and the dragons use their wings to fan out the fire – even the Typhoomerang is helping, which is weird. But the flames finally die and Hannibal dares to breathe a quiet sigh of relief.

“Does that Typhoomerang look familiar to you?” Hannibal can’t help asking, as he studies it.

“Yeah,” Colette agrees, frowning a little.

“Th-this isn’t any Typhoomerang,” Hiccup says, eyes widening a little as he looks up at it, “It’s Torch.”

Oh – oh.

It’s huge now, so huge, but now that he’s looking, Hannibal can sort of see the resemblance.

“What?!” Ruffnut and Colette yelp in unison.

“No way,” Ruffnut adds.

“But Torch was a baby,” Judith protests.

“Yeah, he was like this big,” Tuffnut agrees, hands lifting to demonstrate – even from where he’s still strung up in a dragon trap.

“Must have grown up really fast,” Colette muses.

Hannibal ignores the rest of the twins’ confusion, going over to the dragon as it lowers it’s head to sniff at Hiccup who pets it. Judith nuzzles against it and Colette pets it herself. Even if she’s quick to turn away and pet Toothless too, probably just to make sure they aren’t going to start that up again. Toothless licks her, purring a little.

“Well, it is nice to see him again,” Colette says.

“Yeah,” Hiccup agrees, smiling a little, though he reaches out to pet Toothless’ head, too.

Torch turns it’s attention back to Tuffnut and from the gestures he’s doing, Hannibal can tell that he’s saying goodbye. He has to admit, as he watches the dragon fly away, that he hopes they’ll see it again sometime. Terror child or no, it’s still a dragon they’ve all had plenty of history with.

“What were you saying about how you would never stuck in one of those traps?” Judith snips, looking up at Tuffnut.

“The trap got stuck in him!” Ruffnut jumps to his defense.

“Yikes,” Colette says dryly.

“It did,” Tuffnut whines.

“I guess I should probably let him out now,” Hiccup offers, starting forwards.

“Not so fast,” Gobber interjects, stepping in front of him, “They got themselves in this mess. They need to know how to get out of it.”

“What?!” Ruffnut yelps in protest.

“That seems a little harsh,” Colette objects.

“He does have a point,” Hannibal has to bluntly say. Because they aren’t always gonna be around to drag the twins out of every mess they get themselves into.

They take the net back to the arena to leave there, heading out for the door. And hopefully Ruffnut was paying enough attention to get her brother out of there.

And also, hopefully, this’ll be the end of the trap chaos and no more forest fires.

Chapter Text

Hiccup doesn’t have a good feeling about this from the start, when he and the other riders are sent out looking for Bucket and Mulch. They’ve already very far north and it’s getting colder and colder and Snotlout is the only one with a heated seat – as Astrid put it.

Well, and Hannibal who’s warmed himself up a little to spread warmth to everyone but it’s still freezing and Hiccup’s pretty sure there’s only so long he could use his abilities that strongly.

“Are we sure we aren’t going completely the wrong way?” Colette asks, shivering a little.

“I’ve been trying to track them,” Judith reminds, “They’re somewhere this way.”

And then Hiccup suddenly sees movement down in the water below, right by an iceberg. And – wait.

“There they are!” he calls, pointing. They’re being attacked by a Berserker boat? “Looks like they’re in trouble. Come on, bud.”

They dive down, the dragons firing on the boat which is quick to retreat, sailing away.

But that was…

It’s about Hiccup can do to just breathe right now. They haven’t seen or heard anything from the Berserkers in a long time. He knew they were coming. But that doesn’t mean he expected something was coming right now.

“What happened here?” Hiccup asks urgently as they land on the side of the iceberg where Bucket and Mulch are now standing.

“Well, we thought the Berserkers had hit an iceberg, and so we came into help,” Mulch explains.

“And they attacked you instead?” Colette asks, a little incredulous, “How nice.” Yeah, certainly doesn’t mean anything good for whatever war is coming.

“They attacked us. Because we saw ‘it’,” Mulch finishes.

“It?” Hiccup repeats, confused.

“It!” Mulch repeats.

“Okay, I think you’ll have to be clearer than that,” Hannibal says flatly. Hiccup can see the way his face is pinched in worry, though. All of them know what this means.

“It’s over there,” Mulch says, leading the way across the snow to… something that’s frozen in the ice.

“What’s that?” Colette asks.

Hiccup runs up to it, Fishlegs joining him a moment later. “That looks like a…” He trails off, eyes widening as he rubs his hands on the ice to make it a little clearer.

“A what?” Hannibal presses.

“I can’t believe it,” Fishlegs agrees.

“A dragon,” Hiccup finishes. Definitely a dragon. But that doesn’t make any sense.

“Why would Berserkers be trying to dig it out?” Astrid objects.

“No idea,” Hiccup replies, sighing. He doesn’t like this. At all.

“I mean, the thing is dead,” Colette says, frowning.

“Are you sure it’s dead?” Judith argues, coming over to nose at the ice with her snout.

“Well, it must be, because I don’t see any flappy flappy,” Colette argues, hands wiggling in a ridiculous imitation of dragon wings.

“Well, I wonder why that would be,” Judith deadpans.

“I think we should take it back to Berk and find out what they wanted with it,” Hiccup interjects finally. They need to focus right now. Not panic. They don’t even know that anything with the war is about to change – or maybe he’s just trying to tell himself that.

Norns.

He’s so scared.

“Oh, great. Now we have to dig it out?” Snotlout guesses grumpily.

“Actually, I have a much better idea,” Hiccup replies, looking to Toothless who’s rolling around on the snow on his back. His head instantly lifts, mouth curved in an adorable grin. Well, at least he’s able to relax in the snow right now. Hiccup spends nearly his every waking moment with Toothless but there’s still moments he can forget how cute he can be.

“The dragons should be able to carry it,” Hannibal agrees, catching on to his meaning.

“The ice is still going to melt eventually,” Judith points out.

“Well, at least this way it will give us more time to figure out what it is and keep it away from the Beserkians,” Hiccup replies.

Time for them to get to work.

***

The ice is still pretty frozen solid, even by the time they get it back to Berk and take it to the arena. The twins are unhelpfully arguing in the background and Hiccup finally asks Fishlegs to have Meatlug blast the side of the ice to get it to melt a little more.

He can see it clearer now, and…

“Is that what I think it is?” Hiccup breathes. Despite the tension, for a moment all he can feel right now is awe.

“I think so, but I've only seen pictures,’ Fishlegs agrees.

“Do you realize how huge this could be, Fishlegs?” They’ve never seen this kind of dragon before. Though… that the Beserkians were looking for a dragon like this isn’t actually a good thing. Even if Hiccup doesn’t really understand what they would do with a dragon, period.

“The word ‘epic’ comes to mind,” Fishlegs breathes.

“I hate it when they get like this,” Astrid grumbles.

“Hey,” Hannibal interjects, stepping closer, “Would you mind filling us in?”

It’s enough to make Hiccup momentarily tear his gaze away from the dragon. “We’ll have to check the Book of Dragons,” he replies, “But I think it might be a Skrill.”

The others exchange glances.

“Cool!” Tuffnut exclaims.

“Remind me what that is again?” Hannibal asks.

“It’s a dragon that draws its power from lightning. It’s the symbol of the Berserkers,” Hiccup explains.

“And that… couldn’t have anything to do with why they were looking for it, could it?” Colette asks, worried.

He’s sure it does even if he doesn’t fully understand what. And he’d rather verify this before they start spreading word. “I need to go tell my dad,” Hiccup says and runs for the door, Fishlegs following. Astrid runs after them.

He pauses in the doorway, suddenly remembering who he’s leaving behind. “No one touches that ice while we're gone,” he calls over his shoulder. Snotlout and the twins raise their hands in the fakest surrender, especially with their innocent grins, ever.

“That won’t be a problem,” Colette assures.

Well, her, Hannibal, and Judith should be able to keep an eye on the other three just fine. Right now, he needs to confirm if this is real.

***

Hannibal really doesn’t have a good feeling about this. He was beginning to probably stupidly hope that maybe the Beserkers weren’t going to be coming, after all. Or at least, not for a while. He should probably have considered that maybe they were just preparing for war. Though how this Skrill has anything to do with that, he has no idea and he’s not sure he wants to.

“I still think we should smash it,” Tuffnut says.

“Or blow it up,” Ruffnut agrees, as the twins approach it.

“Hey,” Hannibal interjects, stepping forwards, “Hiccup said not to touch that.”

“I wasn’t gonna touch it!” Tuffnut protests.

“Just sit on it maybe,” Ruffnut agrees, “Hiccup never said we couldn’t do that.”

“And how exactly are you gonna get on the ice without touching it?” Colette asks flatly, eyebrow raising.

The twins smirk at each other, then go over to their dragons, climbing on. For a moment, Hannibal’s almost hoping that they’re going to stay away from it but instead they just jump off the heads, landing on top of the ice.

“You need to come down from there,” he says, approaching. Really, this isn’t something they can afford to play around with.

“It’s awesome up here,” Tuffnut says, ignoring him entirely.

Fine.

He wouldn’t normally do this but right now, he’s pretty sure they want this thing staying frozen until they know what’s happening with it. He grabs Tuffnut’s boot and tries to yank him off.

“Hey!” he protests.

“Ooh, this is awesomer!” Ruffnut crows, laughing as her twin just slides, with nothing to hold onto.

Tuffnut grabs her instead and then they both come sliding off the ice block, landing on the floor.

They get up, looking a bit disgruntled, but thankfully keep their hands away from the ice.

Judith goes over to it slowly, studying it. “I wonder if it’s still alive,” she comments.

“Can’t you sense that or whatever you do?” Snotlout asks.

“Usually, but if something’s unconscious or like in a coma, the way this dragon would be if it were still alive, it’s a lot harder to tell,” Judith replies. “Its mind is so quiet. Like…” She steps a little closer, her eyes glowing silver. She’s probably mentally prodding it.

Everything’s fine, up until Judith suddenly jumps back away from the ice block with a yelp, tripping over her own feet and landing on the floor.

Snotlout and the twins laugh.

And okay, it might’ve looked a little funny except for the part where something’s clearly wrong.

“What’s wrong?” Hannibal asks, frowning.

“It blinked,” Judith replies, voice tinged with an unusual amount of alarm.

“That’s not possible,” Colette argues.

“It did,” she insists.

The twins are saying something snippy in the background that Hannibal isn’t listening to, mostly because it feels like something is changing in the air. The sky above them suddenly seems darker or maybe it’s just the sudden static in the air.

Lightning streaks across the sky above them, and then it crackles downwards, hitting the ice. It shatters. Hannibal dives for cover, stray pieces of ice smacking him as he tries to shield his face. And then everything is suddenly eerily still, except for a low growl.

He looks up slowly. The Skrill, now entirely unfrozen, is standing in the center of the room.

This is really, really bad.

“Hi?” Judith squeaks, hand lifting towards it slowly.

The Skrill growls. And then it suddenly whirls, flying for the exit.

Hookfang tries to block the door but it hits him with a blast of lightning, sending him flying. Hannibal runs for the gate to get it closed but he doesn’t get there near in time and the dragon flies out, and up into the sky, lightning crackling around it.

Well, so much for that.

***

Hiccup can only guess what happened already when he sees the lightning over the arena. He and his dad run but they get there right in time to see the Skrill flying up and away.

Exactly what they didn’t need.

His first guess is Snotlout or the twins but the others should have been able to stop them from doing anything stupid. “What happened?” Hiccup asks, as he runs in.

“I think I accidentally woke it up when I was trying to see if it was alive,” Judith admits, a little sheepishly.

Well, that’s… hardly ideal but it’s not something she could’ve helped either. But what he doesn’t know is now what?

He hears his dad sigh from behind him and turns around. “What is it, Dad?”

“When I was a lad, my father's father used to sit me on his knee and tell me stories. I thought they were just tales,” he replies.

“Tales about what?” Hiccup asks, a little warily.

“Berserker fleets attacking behind harnessed dragons that brought down lightning from the sky and destroyed everything in their path.”

An icy chill snakes through him. Yeah, this is worse than he thought. He figured the Beserkers being after the dragon had something to do with their symbol, but not… “You don't think the Berserkers could actually control a Skrill?”

He tries to think, tries to breathe. This is why Dagur hasn’t attacked yet, isn’t it? Because he’s been out for a Skrill? Something to match their own dragons, to make sure he’ll win? He might be deranged but he’s not stupid.

“I didn't think anyone could ride a Night Fury. We just can't take the chance. If the Berserkers find that Skrill and know some way to control it….” his dad trials off but the rest goes unsaid.

“Then we’ll just have to keep the Berserkers away from it,” Judith speaks up. She says it firmly but Hiccup can still see the fear.

“We’ll find it, Dad,” Hiccup agrees, “I promise.”

They have to. And fast. But something tells him nothing is going to be quiet fast enough. The next war is already here. It’s only a matter of time now.

***

They spend hours looking for the Skrill. It’s already the next morning and none of them have really gotten the chance to sleep. They can’t. Hiccup’s crawling with nerves too much to think about rest anyway.

“Any idea what we do after we find it?” Astrid asks.

“Yeah, I’ve been wondering that, too,” Colette agrees, frowning.

“We catch it, we tame it, we train it, keep it away from Dagur so he doesn't use it against us,” Hiccup replies.

“Something tells me that dragon’s not going to be happy to come back,” Hannibal points out, “I mean, if I was frozen in a block of ice for decades, I wouldn’t be either.”

“Like the Winter Soldier,” Colette offers.

By this time, Hiccup already knows not to even question the strange things they reference. Even if he’s proud to say he’s starting to recognize a few of the names – this one is still unfamiliar, though. And also, he doesn’t have the mental space to think about it all right now, not with the tension in the air. He already knows things are only going to go downhill from here, some way or other.

“This has nothing to do with the Winter Solider,” Hannibal argues, like that even makes any sense, “We aren’t imprisoning it and forcing it to fight for us.”

“I mean, we kind of are if we train it,” Colette objects.

“Well, we aren’t planning to freeze it again,” Hannibal insists, “If anyone’s Winter Soldering it, it’s Dagur.”

“I’d ask what you guys think you’re talking about but I don’t want to know,” Astrid says flatly.

“Sorry, now’s probably a bad time for the references,” Colette huffs.

“What we need is to know that thing’s weaknesses,” Hiccup says.

“It has some,” Fishlegs pipes up, “According to the Book of Dragons, it can't redirect any lightning if it's in the water.”

“That’s a start,” Hiccup decides. At least it’ll give them something to work with.

***

They end up accidentally realizing they should probably be checking for the Skrill near some kind of food source and then they see lightning again and from there, it’s easy enough to follow down where the dragon must’ve gone too.

And then they finally see it in the clouds ahead of them.

“Hold up, everybody,” Hiccup calls, “If the Skrill sees just one dragon, maybe it won't attack.”

“Should I give it a try?” Judith queries.

“Go ahead,” Hiccup agrees. He’d try himself but she’s the one who can actually talk to them, so…

Judith dives forwards, growly softly as she approaches the Skrill. Toothless whines a little, clearly unhappy with the decision; Hiccup’s wary too, but they’ll be ready to get in at a moment’s notice.

He doesn’t know what she’s saying to it just that it snarls fiercely at her.

Judith yips at it again but the Skrill only snarls, a blast of lightning whipping through the clouds and nearly hitting her. She dives aside as Colette yelps, barely managing to duck it.

“Well, it’s hungry all right!” Judith calls in their heads, “And I don’t think it wants to see any of us right now.”

He can’t really blame it but they don’t have a choice right now. “Alright, everyone, we – ”

And then the Skrill flies a little closer, and a blast of lightning goes straight for Hiccup. Toothless dives wildly, spitting a plasma blast up at it before they drop, swinging out of the way. The rest of the riders have also scattered, trying to regroup a distance away.

“Wow, that was impressive,” Fishlegs breathes, awed.

“Sure, if by impressive you mean terrifying!” Snotlout yells back.

“We need some kind of plan here,” Colette says, breathless.

“Plan? What’s that?” asks Tuffnut, which is really, really not helpful right now.

“We need to get it into the water,” Hiccup replies, mind whirling. Maybe they can –

“I can try putting it to sleep,” Judith offers.

“Try that first,” he agrees and she dives forwards, breathing sleep at it. The blast misses entirely when the Skrill dives – it only seems to have riled it up further. Judith goes it at again anyway, trying two more times. The last was nearly close enough for the Skrill to breathe in and also close enough for a stray blast of lightning to go flying.

It hits Judith. Hiccup hears her yowl and Colette’s yelp and then they’re both flying, falling down for the water below.

“Judith? Colette?” he calls after, panicked.

“We’ll be fine,” Judith’s voice filters into his mind, despite sounding pained even mentally. He hears the splash as they hit the water far below but they should be back up in the air in minutes. Right now, they have to focus on the Skrill before they all end up in the water.

“Follow me. I've got an idea. I'm gonna dive through the cloud from above and drive that Skrill down to you guys so we can all drive it into the water,” Hiccup decides.

“Got it,” Tuffnut agrees, and then frowns, “No, I don't. Sorry. Could we go back to the first part about how you're in the cloud, or is the cloud in you? It's all… it’s sort of nebulous for me. Like a cloud in fact!”

Hiccup facepalms. “Just do what everyone else does.”

He hears Hannibal growl worriedly, right as he and Toothless fly forwards, into the cloud. Toothless spits a plasma blast, a purple glow rippling through the clouds in front of them and then they wait.

Echolocation, the others called it. Cool enough word.

There’s movement up ahead seconds later and then the Skrill comes flying right at them, growling. Toothless starts firing and the Skrill gives chase, and from there, it’s not hard to lead it out of the clouds.

Stormfly and Hookfang start firing at it but the Skrill just dives out of the way and starts heading back up again.

Judith flies up moments later. Hiccup pauses a moment to look back at them – her and Colette seem more or less fine, even if there’s no way they aren’t still aching from that. At least they’re back on their feet – err, wings – again.

And then an arrow splits the air, nearly hitting Fishlegs. Another nearly hits Toothless and a few more fly past, narrowly missing their targets.

Toothless dives aside and Hiccup looks down, heart pounding.

There’re three boats down in the water, the sails far too familiar. Oh, and there’s Dagur – he can see the stupid helmet clearly all the way up here.

He knew this was coming. Doesn’t mean he’s at all ready now that it’s here. He hasn’t been this scared in a long time.

Catapults and arrows whiz past them and Hiccup dives aside. “Let's get out of range before they reload,” he calls and everyone is quick to fall back, heading for the nearest sea stack where they can land.

And that’s when he sees how Snotlout’s helmet is smoking.

“Hey uh, Snotlout, are – are you okay?” Hiccup asks.

“Ha, he's better than okay. Did you see that lightning bolt to the head?” Tuffnut calls gleefully.

“That’s actually concerning, not funny,” Colette argues, frowning.

Snotlout tries to say something but all that comes out is a bunch of gibberish that Hiccup can’t even identify.

“Tuffnut's right. Better than okay,” Astrid says smugly.

Colette shoots her an unimpressed look.

Judith spreads her wings, flapping over to Snotlout and looking at him. Doing something with her abilities, he thinks. “He was definitely hit by lightning,” she says finally.

“Are you and Colette both okay, after that?” Hiccup asks.

“We’re fine, sort of.” Colette shifts a little with a wince.

Snotlout tries to say something and all that comes out is more nonsense noises.

“And he’s making more sense than usual,” Astrid offers.

Hiccup sighs. “Okay, he's out of it, so the rest of us will – ”

Snotlout starts trying to talk again.

“Snotlout, we have no idea what you're saying,” Hiccup says with a sigh.

“Sure, we do,” Tuffnut argues, “He said ‘I’m perfectly fine’.”

Snotlout keeps trying to talk.

“Said it again!” Tuffnut says. “I told ‘em.”

“Are you sure that’s really what he’s saying?” Judith asks doubtfully.

“Of course I am,’ Tuffnut insists. “I speak post-lightning Snotlout.”

Hiccup groans. He actually can’t believe they’re having this conversation right now. “How many times has this kid been hit by lightning?”

“Often enough… twelve, oh, really? Twelve times!” Tuffnut translates.

“Uhh… is anyone else worried about that?” Colette asks, eyes widening a little. Hiccup sure is. That’s, well, he has no idea what being hit by lightning directly would feel like but his leg’s been zapped before and that certainly wasn’t pleasant.

“Why would we be?” Astrid asks, a bit carelessly. Really, Hiccup knows her and Snotlout don’t get along at all, but sometimes… Well, it just feels like she goes way too far with it.

“Probably because we’re all friends,” Colette says flatly, giving her a look.

Snotlout’s efforts at talking interrupt the conversation.

“He said ‘enough talk. Dagur’s all mine. And Tuffnut is the toughest of us all’.”

Okay, okay, there’s no way Snotlout said the last bit and they really don’t have time for this right now. Every moment they spend here is giving Dagur more time to try and get to the Skrill.

“Well, you all heard him,” Hiccup interjects with a sigh, “This might not be the time to ask, but how well can you control your blasts, Hannibal?”

Hannibal growls, wings flapping.

“He says he’s been working on it,” Judith translates for him, “He does have some control now.”

“That might be just what we need to get the Skrill down into the water,” Hiccup says. Or at least, he can hope. He hasn’t seen Hannibal actually use an explosion since Red Death. It’s strange to think about how much has changed since then. “Alright, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Judith, you keep the Berserker ships occupied. Hannibal, the twins, and I will go after the Skrill. If Dagur gets his hands on it first, we won't stand a chance.”

He'd burn all of Berk to the ground. And he’d do it. Hiccup doesn’t doubt that he would – and even with their dragons as a defense, he doesn’t know if that would be enough.

“Be careful,” Astrid calls after him, “The lightning is attracted to metal, and you two are wearing a lot more of it than the rest of us.”

Yeah, he knows.

Well, he’ll be preparing to get zapped. It’s probably inevitable at this point. But better him than his friends and all of Berk.

***

At this point, Judith just hopes sleep bombing isn’t a trick everyone’s gonna see coming. And she wishes she hadn’t used up so many blasts against the Skrill earlier. She waits until Meatlug, Hookfang and Stormfly have blasted at the ships enough that the air is smoky before she dives, falling basically in freefall for the deck of the ship.

Oh, looks like she’s heading right for Dagur’s.

She breathes a blast out at everyone and a bunch of the nearby soldiers drop.

Dagur ducks it, going for his crossbow. But she’s already streaking back up into the sky, ready to go after the next ship.

Up above, she hears a deafening explosion. The blinding blast of light rips through the clouds and then she sees Hannibal flying by, glowing brightly. The Skrill comes flying after moments later and Hiccup starts shooting at it, only for it to go back up into the clouds.

Judith dive-bombs another one of the ships and as she’s flying back up, she sees another explosion,  possibly from the twins this time.

The Skrill is chasing Hiccup now.

Hopefully he and Toothless will be okay – she’s got to focus down here unless he really needs her. She tries to ignore how much she’s still aching from when she got hit with the lightning.

Hannibal must have dove in, because Judith can feel the swelling heat above right before a deafening explosion tears through the air. She feels the crack and split of the air all the way down here, and Toothless crashes past right onto Dagur’s ship’s deck in front of him.

“Sorry about your deck,” Hiccup sasses as he takes off.

The other dragons have all pulled back now and Judith joins them, Toothless flying up moments later. “Did anybody see where the Skrill went?” Hiccup asks.

“No,” Astrid offers.

“Vanished in the explosion,” Colette says, “Are we sure it’s not down in the water somewhere?”

“Then we should see it,” Hiccup objects, looking down.

Scanning the water from here, Judith doesn’t see any signs of a large swimming anything either.

“Anyone see where the twins ended up?” Fishlegs pipes up.

Looking around, Judith doesn’t see any signs of them either. This isn’t good. She knows how easily any of them could end up dead in this fight, especially now that the Beserker war is here. But –

No, there’s no reason to jump to that conclusion. These are the twins. They’re probably just…

Fooling around somewhere? Maybe.

Still, she’s worried. “Alright,” Hiccup decides, “We need to start looking for them. Everyone will search over the area and we’ll meet up back on Berk.”

***

They’ve been searching for hours. It’s well into the night again and Hiccup is exhausted but he’s not gonna stop. He can’t. They’ve got to just be looking in the wrong places. If they’re hurt or if they got captured, or…

“I hate to say this,” Hannibal says, walking up back in his human form. He looks tired enough to be dead.  “But I think I’m going to have to call it a night, at least for a couple hours. Using my blasts takes… quite a bit.”

“It’s okay,” Hiccup assures, “The other Riders have come in for the night. They're resting their dragons too.”

“I don't blame them,” Fishlegs pipes up, flying in on Meatlug who’s slowly drooling lava, “I mean, look at Meatlug. She’s sleep-flying.”

“I got some provisions. I'm going back out,” Hiccup decides.

“Not by yourself,” Colette argues. She’s leaning against Judith, who’s still in her dragon form, looking about to drop.

“You sure?” Hiccup asks. She nods firmly. Colette has changed a lot, he can’t help thinking. She wasn’t a fighter. She’s not now either, really, but she’s had to learn, just like Hiccup himself. Even if it’s really what he doesn’t want to do. But none of that will matter until these wars are over.

Judith tiredly noses Toothless who rubs against her side, but she doesn’t offer any objection. If she’s still up to flying, that’s… good.

“Wait, what are you gonna do, fly all night?” Fishlegs asks worriedly, looking between them.

“If I have to, yes,” Hiccup replies, firmly, “You and Meatlug get some rest, Fishlegs. Judith, can you track the twins from here?”

“I can try,” she offers, “I’ll start at their house.”

“Good luck,” Hannibal says, briefly squeezing Hiccup’s shoulder and patting Judith’s head before he turns to go.

They do go to the twins’ house, Judith’s eyes glowing silver as she trots across the ground for a while and then takes off, flying back out over the sea.

They’re heading back to the same area they were chasing the Skrill over, earlier.

“You know,” Hiccup comments, as they fly, “Maybe we've been looking at this whole thing the wrong way. Maybe the twins went after the Skrill.”

“I’m starting to think so, too,” Judith agrees.

A flash of lightning on the horizon only seems to prove the point, since that’s right where Judith is flying them towards.

They keep going for hours. Hiccup can tell Toothless is getting tired and Judith is, too.

“There’s a sea stack up ahead,” Colette pipes up, “If we wanna give the dragons a break before we charge into whatever fight there’s going to be.”

Because there probably will be one. She’s right about that.

Hiccup nods. “Yeah, we can stop there for… a little while.”

They can’t afford to lose much time but they’re following a straight path so they’re probably getting where they’re going a lot faster than the twins.

The dragons land and Hiccup flops over onto his back on Toothless’ back, staring up at the sky. Not really a comfortable way to catch a few minutes of sleep but he finds himself drifting off anyway, even if it’s not for long.

Toothless stirs, waking under him when he sits back up. Toothless nudges Judith, which wakes her and Colette quickly enough, and they head back out again.

And from there, it doesn’t take much longer of flying to see that they’re heading for Outcast Island? Why would the twins be here?

He hasn’t been here since Alvin. He never wants to see this place again. He definitely never wants to land here again.

Toothless whines softly beneath him. “I know, bud,” Hiccup says with a sigh, patting his head, “But we got no choice.”

If the twins were captured, or…

Hiccup just tries not to think too hard about all the memories this place brings, as they fly low over the ground, landing up on a ridge that overlooks an Outcast building.

“The twins are here?” Colette asks, frowning. “I don’t see them…”

“I see a lot of Outcasts,” Hiccup offers, pulling out an eyeglass and looking through it, into the structure below. He can see movement, even at this distance.

“All I know is he's planning something big with that Skrill,” Ruffnut’s voice pipes up from behind him and he jumps, spinning around.

There she is. He doesn’t think he’s ever been quite so relieved to see her in his life. “Ruff?” Hiccup asks, “You’re – you’re alive. I – I – I don’t believe it! Whe… Where’s Tuff?”

Her expression flickers. “He didn’t make it, Hiccup.”

“What?!” he and Colette demand in equal, panicked unison. That’s not –

“Kidding!” she crows.

“Hey,” Colete huffs, “That’s not funny.”

He’s almost too relieved to even be annoyed but seriously, that wasn’t funny. He’d been so scared that something like that had happened to one of them.

“He’s right behind you,” Ruffnut says.

Hiccup turns around slowly, to see nothing.

“Where?” Colette asks.

“What's up?” Tuffnut’s voice calls from… inside the tree? “Cool disguise, huh? Ha. It's kinda itchy.”

“Uh, yeah. Not bad,” Hiccup offers tentatively.

“Kinda cool,” Colette agrees.

“Yeah, yeah, Tuff hollowed out that tree so he couldn't be seen. Problem is he can't move,” Ruffnut says with a gleeful little smirk.

“And I have bark beetles in my pants,” Tuffnut whines.

“Gross,” Colette says with a shudder, over the rest of Tuff’s ramble that Hiccup could’ve done without hearing.

Hiccup goes over to the edge of the rock ledge again, pulling out his spyglass to watch. He sees the Skrill a moment later, and there’s Alvin and he tries not to think too hard about all the memories seeing him brings. And then he sees…

Wait a minute.

“That's weird. Those look like Berserker soldiers,” Hiccup realizes, dread pooling in his gut.

“Well, it’s not hard to guess why,” Colette says, deflating.

No, it’s not. But this is really bad. “Dagur,” he breathes, when he sees him approach Alvin a moment later, “Dagur and Alvin together. With the Skrill? Really not good.”

That would be understatement. It was bad enough to have to fight them both but if they’re teamed up together? That’s gonna be…

Colette’s hand finds his, squeezing it tightly. He squeezes it back, trying to just – breathe. Focus.

“We have to sneak into town and find out what Dagur and Alvin are up to,” Hiccup says, looking up.

“I could send Birdseye,” Judith speaks up. The Terrible Terror in question is hopping around on her back, having come along for this part of the search.

“I’m not sure a dragon could get close enough without getting shot down,” Colette argues.

“And a person could?” Judith asks.

“If they walked in like they belonged,” Hiccup offers. “I can’t go. They’d recognize me.”

“I can go,” Tuffnut volunteers.

“Alright. You need to go down there and get as much info as you can without being seen.”

“Way ahead of you,” he promises cheerfully and Hiccup really hopes this won’t be a mistake. But he knows the twins can be serious about something when it’s really important. “They won't even see me coming!” He scuttles to the edge of the cliff, starts crawling down, and then falls the rest of the way screaming.

Colette winces. “So much for that?” she squeaks, tiptoeing to the edge and carefully peering over.

Judith makes a grumpy dragon noise in agreement.

Hiccup can’t really tell what they’re saying down there but it seems like Tuff’s pulling it off, since the guard lets him past.

“Well,” Colette decides, settling back, maybe a little surprised, “It seems like he’s doing fine.”

“It’s probably going to be a while. Maybe we should get some rest,” Judith suggests,

Rest?

On Outcast Island, with Alvin and Dagur almost within sight? That’s… Well, she has a point about needing it but Hiccup can hardly imagine even trying. Still, if it comes to a fight, they’ve got to be ready for it, not falling asleep.

 “I can keep Birdseye on watch,” she adds a moment later, so that’s about it.

Hiccup curls up against Toothless’ side and Colette lies down next to him, with Judith pressed against her side. They’re basically entirely invisible between the dragons here. It’s nice. Makes him feel a tiny bit safer, at least.

Ruffnut curls up next to Barf and Belch, and she seems comfortable enough.

Toothless and Judith nose each other, whining softly.

Colette’s hand finds Hiccup’s again and he holds it tightly.

***

Hiccup hardly remembers falling asleep, just that he’s waking to sunlight against his face and Toothless stirring a little next to him.  

How long have they been here? “Any sign of Tuff?” Hiccup asks, sitting up slowly.

Ruff and Colette are both sitting up too, as are their dragons.

“Nope,” Ruffnut says.

“Hopefully he’s okay,” Colette says, biting her lip.

“Oh, I’m sure he’s fine,” Ruffnut promises, but she looks more worried than… Well, pretty much ever when it comes to the twins. “Because if not, we would’ve seen fire.”

“That’s true,” Hiccup has to agree.

For now, all they can do is wait. And wait. Judith sends Birdseye to scout out for some water to refill their bottles since they have no idea how long it’s going to be. It’s not really the cleanest way to get water but he could hardly care about that at this point.

And then finally, they hear noise.

It’s Tuffnut, circling up to the top of their cliff the long way. “You’re okay,” Hiccup says, on his feet instantly.

“What happened? Did you hear their plan?” Judith gets to the point instantly.

“The plan,” Tuffnut replies, sitting down next to them, “Is to smash those dirty Berkians to pieces with both fleets! It's gonna be awesome.”

Hiccup blinks, then blinks again. Did he really… “Yeah, uh - you do realize we're the Berkians?”

“Oh, right.” Tuffnut’s cheer falters. “Still gonna be awesome.”

Awesome?

That’s really not the word he’d use right now. More like terrifying. 

“I don’t think you’ll still think it’s awesome when Berk is on fire,” Colette objects.

“You know who you’re talking to, right?” Judith asks her, before looking at the twins, “it won’t be awesome when they try to kill Barf and Belch.”

Tuffnut’s cheer fades entirely, as he and Ruff exchange a panicky look.

“Two fleets and a Skrill are gonna be pretty tough to beat,” Hiccup pipes up.

“No, Alvin has made it pretty clear. Dagur doesn't get the Skrill until after they destroy Berk,” Tuff replies, “I think they have trust issues.”

Wait.

Wait – 

“Wait, what did you just say?” Hiccup demands, urgently.

“I said they have trust issues,” Tuffnut replies, shrugging.

“No,” Hiccup corrects, mind whirling, “You said ‘Dagur doesn’t get the Skrill until after the attack.’ Think about it. No Skrill, no alliance. No alliance, no invasion. Tuff, I need you to get back into town and distract the arena guards. The rest of us are going to free that Skrill.”

“Uh, hang on a sec,” Tuffnut argues, “I'm pretty sure Dagur threatened to cut my legs off.”

“What?!” Colette yelps.

Okay, Hiccup really doesn’t want to know.

“For what?” Judith demands, incredulous.

“I don’t even remember,” Tuffnut grumbles. “Anyway, just wanted to get that out there.”

“So are you going?” Ruffnut asks.

He groans. “Ah, fine! I'm going. And my legs are on your head. I mean, not - you know what I'm saying. You'll be thinking about these legs if I lose 'em.” He turns to go.

Well, Hiccup would rather not have to send Tuff in there after that either but they don’t have any other choice. If they’re caught here, they’re all going to end up dead and if they don’t get the Skrill out of there, them and all of Berk are going to be dead.

***

They wait until Tuff has hopefully had plenty of time to deal with the guards to start down there. There’s surprisingly not any around but that there’s signs of a fight has Colette a little… twitchy. She just really doesn’t think this looks like Tuff’s work.

They run into the arena together, only to see that the Skrill cage is… empty?

“Well, if you don't have the Skrill, and I don't have the Skrill, then who has the Skrill?” Tuffnut asks when he climbs down the wall.

“You don’t think…” Colette trails off, frowning.

“We better get out there and find it before Dagur does,” Hiccup says firmly.

“I hate to say it might already be too late,” Judith points out.

Yeah. Great. Because this little trip to Outcast Island couldn’t get any worse. But who else would’ve taken off with the Skrill?

They fly back out and go in search of the lightning storm, yet again. And they don’t have to look far.

There’s an Outcast and Berserker boat rammed up right next to each other and Dagur and Alvin are fighting.

This is… actually a little funny. Sort of. It’s hard to find anything humorous right now but at least there goes their alliance and she kind of wants to see both Alvin and Dagur knocked around a little – more like a lot – right now, so seeing them doing it to each other is actually a relief. “I’m not sure who I hope is going to win,” Colette comments.

“Both of them are a problem,” Hiccup points out.

“That’s my point,” she argues.

“I want popcorn,” Judith says smugly, sitting down her head on her paws to watch.

“What’s popcorn?” asks Ruffnut.

Colette makes a face. “It’s this really annoying stuff that – “

“It’s popped corn that's often served with butter,” Judith interrupts.

“Then why was I always served it dry?” Ugh. She hated popcorn. Everyone thought she was insane for that. But seriously. Ugh.

“Once we get back to Berk, I can make all the popcorn everyone wants” Judith suggests.

“Awesome,” Tuffnut says cheerfully.

The sound of crackling lightning draws all eyes back to the fight, right as Dagur yanks on the ropes attached to the Skrill. Alvin leaps into the ocean and he hits the water. There's a blinding flash of white light from the lightning and when it fades, Colette can’t see Alvin anywhere. He’s gone. That’s… actually a relief. They’ve been fighting him for… so long now.

But that all the Outcasts are joining up with Dagur… isn’t good.

And nor is the fact that he clearly does have a way to control the Skrill and she has no idea what that’s gonna mean.

She just knows she’s so, so scared.  Berk is her home, the first real home she’s ever had. Hiccup, the other riders… they’re the first real family she’s ever had. She can’t imagine something happening to any of them.

“I have an idea,” Hiccup speaks up, eyes narrowing a little, “I’m going to challenge Dagur to challenge Dagur to a one-on-one fight. I think I know how I can turn this on him.”

Her gut flips. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Hiccup wouldn’t suggest this if he didn’t have a reasonably good plan, but –

“I think I know how to win,” Hiccup promises.

She deflates, nodding slowly.

“Alright,” Judith agrees, “But we’ll be right here if you need help.”

Hiccup shares a final glance with them before he and Toothless take off, and Hiccup offers his challenge to Dagur, who just jumps on that.

That’s – hopefully, good. All they can do now is wait and watch.

“That’s it?” she can distantly hear Dagur call, as Toothless spits two plasma blasts which the Skrill blocks with lightning, “I was hoping for more of a challenge.”

“So was I,” Hiccup snarks back.

He’s leading him somewhere and it only takes Colette a moment to realize where. To somewhere wet.

Oh. Oh.

That’s – actually really smart. A little bit awful, maybe, but they don’t have another choice.

“Any last words, Hiccup?” Dagur calls.

What, he’s really planning to kill Hiccup here? That doesn’t actually surprise her but she wishes they didn’t have to just stand here watching.

“I got nothing,” Hiccup throws back, “How about you?” He pats Toothless’ head who starts firing again. The Skrill fires back and she sees the lightning crackling down the ropes, running through Dagur.

He drops, smoking.

Okay uhh – Star Wars animations sort of under do and overdo what that looks like.

“That looked painful,” Judith snarks.

Yeah, no kidding.

Kind of hard to manage much sympathy when she’s still sore from getting zapped into the ocean and when this is the person who just threatened to kill Hiccup.

And ohh, looks like the Skrill is still one very angry dragon. It flies right for Toothless and they take off. Judith jumps off the sea stack, giving chase, alongside the twins. But they don’t get there until Hiccup’s flying out the side of an iceberg, with no Skrill following him. The twins blow over an opening and they wait a heartbeat, just to make sure it’s gone.

Frozen again.

She feels kind of bad about that but right now, at least it’s gone. And its finally time to go back to Berk. Still, it’s hard to feel any relief. The Skrill might be gone but Dagur’s got the Outcasts now and she knows another attack is only going to be a matter of time now.

She’s not used to this. She doesn’t know how to do this. Yeah, fighting is really most of what they’ve been doing but the threat hasn’t really started feeling so real until… now.

 ***

Hiccup wishes he could stop thinking. But he really can’t and retreating to a high vantage point overlooking the ocean and sitting alone next to Toothless is certainly going to do nothing to get his mind off it, but he can’t… stop thinking.

Dagur was going to kill him. Yeah, that doesn’t really surprise him with how close he came to doing it back on Dragon Island. So it’s a little stupid how much it… hurts.

And Hiccup nearly killed him. It would be easier if how he felt about it weren’t so messy.

Hiccup actually doesn’t even know how he feels about it.

He hears the sound of grass crunching behind him and looks up to see Hannibal, Judith, and Colette approaching. They pause to briefly pet Toothless who licks and nuzzles them before they come over to sit next to Hiccup.

“You seem… thoughtful,” Judith comments, eyeing him.

“There’s a lot to think about,” Hiccup offers. “With the Screaming Death and the war.” Even if that’s only half of what’s on his mind.

“It doesn’t look like that’s all that’s on your mind,” Hannibal objects.

He really doesn’t want to talk about this. He doesn’t even know how. He’s never talked to anyone about Dagur. He wouldn’t have known how to even before and now?

Colette pokes him.

Hiccup tries to ignore it.

But then she does it again. And again. And again.

Ugggh. “It’s just that,” Hiccup states and Colette’s hand freezes from midway to being about to poke him again. Small success there, anyway.  “I’ve fought in battles before but I’ve never nearly killed someone I know before.” It’s a little messier than that, but how could he ever say any more? Dagur is their enemy.

“Oh,” she says quietly, hand lowering to lightly pat his leg.

“I know that wouldn’t be easy,” Judith offers quietly, “No matter who’s being talked about.”

Yeah, no kidding.

And the knowledge that Dagur is going to be back and he’ll probably be even more bent on revenge now, if that’s even possible, isn’t doing anything to settle his mind.  And… what’s it going to take for this to end?

Chapter Text

“I’m gonna kick the bucket!” Snotlout wails, and Hiccup tries very hard not to groan. This is like the what number of times he’s heard that today? And Snotlout didn’t even show up in time to their meeting and then he comes in going on about this again.

“Uh, Snotlout, do you mind? We're having a Dagur meeting,” Hiccup says with a sigh.

“Dagur's here?” Tuffnut asks.

“Who said that?” Colette asks in complete confusion.

“He said it was a Dagur meeting,” Tuff tries explaining. “Doesn’t that mean we’re meeting Dagur?”

Seriously?

“In the last week I've seen three of the five signposts to Valhalla!” Snotlout wails.

“We know!” nearly everyone yells back.

And Hiccup can’t believe they’re seriously having this conversation.

“You know? And you're just standing there talking about stupid Dagur?” Snotlout complains.

“I thought you liked him,” Hannibal points out dryly.

“One of your bravest and most treasured warriors is about to leave this world forever,” Snotlout retorts, “And none of you are even worried.”

“Look on the bright side. At least you'll be in eternal paradise,” Tuffnut offers.

“So will we,” Astrid snips.

Hiccup tries not to wince. Okay, yeah, Snotlout is really exhausting sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they want him dead. And he knows she doesn’t mean everything she says, but… that still hurt.

“I still don’t get why you think you’re dying, anyway,” Colette says with a sigh. “What even are these signposts?”

“Well, I already saw the flying fish, the weeping rock, and the singing trees,” Snotlout replies.

Colette just looks more confused and so do Hannibal and Judith. Another reminder again that this isn’t the kind of thing they just grew up knowing.

“Okay, you need to go to bed,” Hannibal says flatly.

“How is this a joke to you?” Snotlout demands.

“It’s not a joke,” Colette replies with a sigh, “But what you’re saying doesn’t even make sense.”

“Yeah,” Judith agrees, “I mean, no offense to your religious beliefs but you people have strange beliefs about the afterlife. In our time, people would see family members who died there to take them to the next world or a bright light or something and here you just see crying rocks.”

When she puts it like that…

“Really,” Hiccup cuts in, “Everyone knows the five signposts to Valhalla is nothing but an old wives' tale.”

“Doesn’t look like everyone does,” Colette points out, a little dryly.

“Then how do you explain why I’ve seen them all one after the other?” Snotlout demands.

Hiccup has no idea but he’s beginning to think he’s just looking for them at this point, because he somehow got this in his head for reasons he can’t begin to understand.

“I’m sure all you saw were salmon spawning, wet rocks on the beach, and a gust of wind,” Fishlegs interjects.

“Besides, the five signposts to Valhalla are only supposed to happen to great warriors,” Astrid adds.

“Obviously,” Snotlout replies grumpily, crossing his arms, “What's your point?”

“I think his point is that she doesn’t count you as that,” Hannibal offers.

“Are you done?” Hiccup interrupts finally because this conversation has really gone on long enough.

“No, not even close,” Snotlout replies, “Though devastated and still in pre-mourning, Gustav has volunteered to carry on the Snotlout legacy.”

He pulls Gustav out from… right behind the board? How did Hiccup not realize he was standing right there?

“It's an honor,” Gustav says cheerfully.

Ugh.

They’ve been chasing him out of the arena for days now and Hiccup might normally have more patience for it if not for the fact that they’re trying to prepare for war. And the last thing they need is this little kid getting hurt because he won’t stay out of here.

“Please tell me he's not gonna fly around saying, "oy, oy, oy.",” Astrid says with a groan.

Hannibal makes a face.

“That's a good idea,” Snotlout pats the kid on the head, “Gustav, make a note of that.” He nods emphatically.

Ugh. Really, they don’t have time for this right now.

“Okay look,” Judith thankfully interjects for him, “No one can replace you and why would we want someone to replace you if you were dead? How would we ever mourn you if we were just trying to pretend someone else was in your place?”

Yes, thank you, for laying it out so cleanly. Not that the idea of his cousin dying is something Hiccup can even fathom, no matter how rough their relationship has been.

Snotlout just seems… confused. “Someone has to ride Hookfang,” he argues.

“I can keep an eye on him,” Colette points out with a long sigh, “If it really came down to it. And why are we talking about this?!”

“It’s okay,” Snotlout soothes, “Denial is part of the grieving process. But I can’t just leave Hookfang without a rider and you already have a dragon.”

Colette facepalms.

“Even if this were true,” Hiccup cuts in, “Which it is not, you can't just pick someone to replace you.”

“Well, you guys threw out my original plan,” Snotlout complains.

“To bury Hookfang alive beside you?” Astrid demands incredulously.

“He would gladly sacrifice himself for his beloved master. Trust me.”

Hookfang whacks Snotlout across the arena with his tail. Right now, Hiccup almost thinks he deserved that. They’re not burying his dragon alive. Honestly. How are they seriously having this conversation?

“I don’t know about you but that sounds like a pretty barbaric suggestion,” Hannibal says flatly.

“Okay, let's just say, for argument's sake, you've seen three of the five signposts. It doesn't mean anything. There are still two left,” Hiccup interrupts.

He sees something falling suddenly and there’s a thump and a dead bird lands on the floor in front of them.

It’s stupid that his heart does a sort of wild flip thing before the reality of this sinks in, along with the this isn’t happening and yes, it’s still stupid.

“Oh no!” Snotlout shrieks, jumping away, “The fourth signpost... the bird of death!”

“Where did that come from?” Judith asks warily, looking around.

“Does it matter? It’s the bird of death,” Snotlout protests, backing away. “I told you – ”

“It's not the bird of death. It's just a dead chicken. It's not the same thing, right, guys?” Hiccup looks hopefully at the others.

“Sure it is. Definitely. Bird of death,” the twins offer with far too much glee and right now really isn’t a time for their jokes.

“I know this isn’t helpful to say right now, but it is a dead bird,” Colette pipes up, “Not that that means anything. I mean, birds die all the time.”

“We're on the clock, little man,” Snotlout decides, ignoring the rest of them entirely and turning to Gustav, “We're starting your training immediately.”

Hiccup sighs. There’s no way his cousin is letting this go so they’ll just have to work with that for now, until he gets tired of having convinced himself of this. “Fine. The rest of us have to keep an eye on Outcast Island. While we're gone, try not to take anyone else with you to eternal paradise.” Because he knows there’s no way this isn’t going to end in disaster.

“I make no promises,” Snotlout calls after him.

***

Judith really, really can’t believe this is happening. More than that, she can’t believe Snotlout seems genuinely panickily convinced that this is real. He’s not faking that part and it’s a bit insane. Maybe now that everyone is scattering, she can try to talk some sense into him. Maybe.

“Snotlout?” she asks, pausing, “Can I have a word before we go?”

Colette pauses in the doorway, looking back. Well, it’s fine if she wants to be here, too.

“Of course,” Snotlout says, “You don’t know if you’ll ever see me again.”

Ugh. She wishes he would stop saying this. She knows he’s not dying, but it’s still a little… Well, someone could die. They’re at war. Judith knows death better than she knows almost anything. She knows what it’s like to watch her home burned to the ground by dragon hunters and when she lost her second family by coming here… Hearing someone say she might never see them again is actually scaring her a little. Even if that’s not what’s about to happen.

“Look, Snotlout,” Judith says, “I really don’t think there’s a reason for you to be so worried about this.”

“It’s okay,” he promises again, “I know you don’t want to believe it.”

“Of course, we don’t,” Colette interjects, “But this doesn’t even make sense period. Why would you die because you saw a crying rock and a dying bird and a… what were the rest?”

“You don’t die from that stuff,” he argues, “Those are just signs that you’re going to and I need to be getting Gustav ready.”

“Okay, about that,” Judith cuts in, “Gustav is in no way ready for this. And what if Hookfang wouldn’t want another rider? Or what if he doesn’t want Gustav? If anyone rode him, it should be Colette. She’s the first one he bonded with.”

“I’d be fine with that,” Colette offers, “But why are we talking about this? It’s way too depressing.”

“I have to be prepared,” Snotlout insists. “And you have to be prepared.”

She really has no idea how he’s gotten this so firmly in his head, but clearly nothing they’re saying is going to work. “You know, I can sense when people are sick or something,” Judith points out, “And you feel just fine. There’s no reason you’d be about to die.”

“I’m a warrior. I’d die in battle, not from getting sick.” He sounds almost insulted now. Great. Not really what she was going for.

And also, she tries to ignore the way her heart flips a little at the words. Because the war really is going real.

“If you really want to stay here with Gustav, fine, but I just really think you should consider that these signposts don’t make sense,” Judith says, turning to go. Hopefully, he’ll at least think about it after her and Colette are gone.

***

They get back from a trip to Outcast Island and come back to the Academy to see Snotlout very seriously trying to teach Gustav to ride Hookfang. Hiccup really doesn’t have the energy for this right now. It’s bad enough they’re already dealing with trying to figure out what Dagur’s building on Outcast Island and they don’t have time for this.

“Gustav is in no way ready to be a member of this academy,” Hiccup finally says flatly.

“No way,” Tuffnut offers in agreement.

“This just isn’t a place for ten-year-olds right now,” Colette interjects, offering Gustav a slightly sympathetic look at how offended he looks at the comment.

“And you can’t just have someone else bond with your dragon,” Judith adds, “The bond is unique to both the rider and dragon, on both sides. You can’t just plan on a replacement for either one.”

“There's way more to being a dragon rider than feeding it and getting on its back,” Fishlegs agrees.

“Neither of which he can do very well, anyway,” Astrid adds.

“None of us are perfect,” Snotlout argues, “Except for me. Fishlegs is afraid of heights. The twins can't count past nine. Astrid has obvious anger issues. Hannibal can only blow things up. Judith doesn’t have scales. Colette only knows how to teach dragons to snuggle. And…”

He trails off, looking to Hiccup.

Hiccup raises an eyebrow, waiting for whatever snarky comment his cousin is going to have about him. Only for… nothing?

“Well, enough said,” Snotlout says instead, turning away.

He’s really not on his best mind, or… he doesn’t actually believe Hiccup’s flawless, does he?

“Hey,” Colette pipes up, “Teaching hugs is a useful skill. I mean, if someone hugged Vader, he probably would’ve been redeemed a long time before he was. Not that that’s going to work in the Dagur situation.”

Hiccup slowly turns to stare at her.

Okay first of all, who is Vader, why is she always cracking jokes about him, and did she just imply one of them should try hugging Dagur?

Now? After…

“Sorry, bad joke,” Colette says with a sheepish grin, holding up her hands.

Yeah, he’s pretty sure that day on Dragon Island is the last time Dagur’ll ever be hugging him. Not that that’s even… important?

Ugh. Whatever.

They really need to be focusing. Not dealing with all this.

“Oh, Astrid, what might have been,” Snotlaou says, dropping a hand onto her shoulder.

Why he asks to get hit all the time, Hiccup has no idea.

Because sure enough, Astid reaches up, twisting his hand backwards. Hiccup’s trying not to watch.

“At least I can’t feel pain in Valhalla,” Snotlout moans as he drops.

“Snotlout, for the last time, you are not going to Valhalla!” Hiccup nearly yells. He is officially going to lose his mind.

And then he hears the sound of sheep bleating, a group of which come running into the arena moments later, going straight to Snotlout. He stumbles backwards, gasping panickily.

“The shepherd’s curse?” Fishlegs squeaks, “That’s…”

“The fifth signpost?” Astrid asks, incredulously.

“Goodness,” Hannibal says flatly, “Does this mean all great warriors are doomed to die as shepherds? Because that’s really sad.”

“Oh, this cannot be happening,” Hiccup groans. He doesn’t understand why this keeps happening, but it’s certainly not what Snotlout is thinking it is. His cousin is not dying. And maybe Hiccup’s being stubborn by refusing to accept such a reality, but he genuinely, honestly can’t. He refuses to think about a reality where his cousin was dead.

The sheep swarm Snotlout, who’s looking increasingly alarmed. “Avenge me! Have lamb for dinner!” he wails and drops.

Judith and Colete shove their way through the sheep to look down at him.

“Uh, what happened to him?” asks Colette.

“I think he fainted,” Hiccup says with a sigh.

He thinks Judith might be poking at him with her powers from the way her eyes glowing silver for a moment, and then Snotlout starts stirring. He sits up slowly, looking around. “This is Valhalla? What a rip-off!”

“Nope, still Berk. You fainted,” Hiccup tells him bluntly, desperately hoping this will finally be enough to make him let this go.

“More proof that my warrior's body is failing me,” Snotlout protests, panicked.

“Snotlout,” Judith interjects with a sigh, “Remember when I told you that you felt fine?”

“Maybe you just don’t feel it yet,” he argues, standing, “I don't have much time, Hiccup. You have to let Gustav take my place.”

“Gustav is not taking your place. He’s not ready,” Hiccup replies flatly.

“Well, train me anyway. Isn't that what you do here? I thought this was a Dragon training academy,” Gustav protests.

“Gustav,” Colette interjects, sounding thoroughly exhausted, “Look, maybe under other circumstances, we could give you some training but we’re in a war here. It’s not really about learning anymore. It’s about doing or dying. You’re too young to need to worry about that yet.”

“But I want to do this,” Gustav argues.

“Gustav, we learned to be dragon riders the only way we knew how, by doing,” Hiccup interrupts in agreement, “It was dangerous, foolhardy…”

“And awesome!” Tuffnut crows.

“Not helping,” Hiccup says with a sigh.

“What Hiccup is trying to say, Gustav, is that you need experience,” Astrid finishes.

“The rider needs experience. The dragon needs experience. And the rider and the dragon together need experience,” Fishlegs adds.

“And right now really isn’t the time to be trying to get that,” Colette says.

“Experience, huh?” Gustav asks, turning to go. Hiccup actually really has a bad feeling about that.

“Sorry, Hookfang,” Snotlout pipes up, “I guess this means we're back to plan one. Ruff, Tuff, start digging!”

Norns.

This is not happening.

***

Of course just when they’re trying to have another important Dagur meeting, Gustav shows up again with his own Monstrous Nightmare and when his friend suggest that maybe they need to pretend they’re going along with this to get Snotlout to snap out of it, Hiccup can’t even disagree anymore.

Espeically because within minutes of putting Gustav through their training excelsis and acting like he’s doing it great even when he’s really not, Snotlout is already starting to get edgy.

“This is starting to feel like having a group padawan,” Colette mumbles, as lean over an unconscious Gustav and wait for him to wake up.

“How did I do?” Gustav asks, when he sits up slowly.

“You lasted for like two seconds,” Snotlout scoffs.

“So I’d say pretty good,” Colette agrees cheerfully.

“Yeah, those two seconds… awesome,” Hiccup adds. For someone as young as Gustav, that’s actually the truth. Even if it’s also complete proof that there’s no way they’re letting him into the dragon riders.

“I got to admit, you're gonna make a great replacement for Snotlout, Gustav,” Astrid adds.

Snotlout scowls. “Says who? Hey, wait a second.” Realization settles over his face. “You're trying to convince me I'm not dying. What kind of friends are you?”

“Friends who don’t want you to die,” Colette replies flatly.

“Look, Snotlout, maybe you have seen the five signposts of Valhalla,” Hiccup interrupts, because he’s really, really had enough with this, “And maybe you are going to die someday. And maybe you could stop scratching while I'm talking to you – ” 

Seriously. It’s driving him insane.

“Sorry,” his cousin whines, “It’s just all this broadgrass in my shorts.”

“What?!” Judith repeats, incredulous.

Hannibal looks like he doesn’t even want to know.

“And your shorts are full of broadgrass why?” Hiccup asks.

“More importantly, why aren't yours?” Snotlout grumbles, “The twins told me it prevents saddle chafing.”

Ruff and Tuff exchange a wary look, slowly backing away.

Oh. Oh.

He wondered just a little if this was a prank somehow but now? Well, this answers everything. And Hiccup really isn’t amused. “Oh, they did, did they? They also let the sheep in, and sheep love broadgrass. And I'm guessing you're also the ones who dropped the bird of death.”

“We have no idea what you're talking about,” Ruffnut protests guilty.

Two chickens come falling through the roof of the arena and everyone looks up to see Barf and Belch.

Yeah, that answers that.

“Okay guys, just so you know,” Judith speaks up, fixing them both with a look, “This was not funny.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Hannibal doesn’t look any happier.

The twins run.

Well, that’s probably for the best right now.

“Ah, oh. I get it. So this means… I give up. What does this mean?” Snotlout asks, completely confused.

“That this was just a prank?” Colette offers.

“That the twins were messing with you,” Astrid agrees.

“Right, right. And...” Snotlout trails off, uncertainly.

“You're not dying!” Hiccup nearly yells.

And that finally seems to sink into his cousin’s mind. He has a long I’m alive meltdown before he finally far too gleefully throws Gustav out of the Academy. Well, hopefully that’ll be over with.

Espeically because right then is when his dad shows up with word from Trader Johann that Dagur’s got some kind of new weapon they need to go check out.

***

It’s the middle of the night when they reach Outcast Island, hiding themselves behind sea stacks to see what they can see from here. It’s just him, Judith, Colette, Astrid, and Snotlout. The twins are nowhere to be found, Hannibal sticks out too much night as a dragon, and they didn’t really need to bring Fishlegs along too, for what’s hopefully just gonna be a scouting mission.

He still has a bad feeling about this. Then again, he’s got a bad feeling about all of this ever since it started, especially since he has no idea when it’s going to end.

“There are a lot of Berserkers down there,” Hiccup observes, frowning.

“I could send in Birdseye,” Judith offers.

“Are sure she won’t get spotted?” Colette asks.

Looking at the sheer numbers down there, Hiccup has to say that he’s worried too. “You can try but be careful,” he warns.

Judith makes a growl of agreement and the Terrible Terror in question takes off, flying closer through the trees. That lasts until it must’ve hit a branch or something because one of the soldiers looks up and sees it, firing an arrow at it.

Bird’s-Eye screeches, flying away.

So much for that.

“I can’t tell what that was,” Judith says, “He didn’t see it for long enough, or close enough. It’s too dark.”

“We need a diversion,” Hiccup replies. They’re not going to be able to keep their presences here secret, clearly.

“Allow me,” Astrid requests, diving forwards. Stormfly spits at some of the Berserkers and then takes off, them giving chase.

At least it gets a bunch of them out of there and Hiccup dives in to get a closer look. But he’s not near enough that he can even figure out what that is. And that’s when a blast of fire tears across the ground, over the sound of gleeful yelling and Hiccup looks up to see… Gustav?

Oh no.

A net fires, taking him down.

This was a trap, wasn’t it? Dagur is waiting right there. He should’ve known. They need to get out of here. Fast – except, they can’t because now Gustav is down.

“Okay, that solves the Gustav problem. Interested in a lamb dinner on the way home?” Snotlout calls cheerfully.

“Are you – ” Hiccup starts and then realizes what he’s saying and mostly that he’s half serious.

“Snotlout!” Colette exclaims.

“We aren’t leaving him here!” Judith exclaims, equally incredulous, “Do you have any idea what those people might do to a kid like that?”

“We have to save him,” Hiccup agrees.

Snotlout groans. “Fine.”

Hiccup dives down overhead, yelling at Gustav to burn the ropes off, which he does – finally.

But the net fires again and Toothless isn’t able to dive fast enough. It hits them and then they’re falling, crashing to the forest floor. Hiccup tries to push himself up, but he can hardly move, not even enough to try wriggling around to get something to cut through the ropes.

Berserkers swarm out of the woods, surrounding him, weapons raised, as though he’s even able to do anything when he’s trapped down here and can hardly move. Toothless is thrashing, trying to free himself, but it’s not enough. They’re not going to be fast enough.

“Hiccup, we’re coming!” he hears Snotlout yelling from above, but he’s too – too far away.

And then he sees Dagur approaching, sword drawn.

He’s going to kill them. Toothless, at least.

And there’s nothing Hiccup can do to stop it. He can hardly move. He squirms against the ropes anyway, with the sword inches from Toothless’ head.

There’s a flash of silver and Judith is diving down, breathing a blast at everyone. A bunch of the soldiers drop. Dagur rolls aside, but then Hookfang is flying down, ripping the net free and spitting fire.

Toothless takes off, and they fly out of there as fast as they can.

Still takes Hiccup’s heart a very long time to stop pounding. All the others look equally shaken. No one talks much in the flight back to Berk.

***

Toothless nearly died. Hiccup too, probably and Colette doesn’t think she’ll ever get that moment out of her head. If her and Judith had gotten there any slower, they’d –

She doesn’t want to think about it. She can’t stop. The war she’s stuck in the middle of now has never felt quite so real. The Outcasts were really more of a joke of a threat, compared to this.

She hug tackles Hiccup almost the moment they’re back on the ground. She wishes she could find words. She can’t – she just wants to cry.

Judith and Toothless are rubbing snouts and Colette goes over to hug Toothless’ neck once Hiccup lets go of her.

She can’t stop shaking. Here, a thousand or so years back in time from where she’s supposed to be, is the first place she’s ever felt like she has a home. But there’s more about this time than she first thought that she still has no idea how to face. Like the wars.

Judith tells Hiccup, Snotlout, and Astrid that they’d like them to come over to their house for the evening and none of them have any objections, though Hiccup goes to tell his dad what happened first. He’s acting like he’s just shrugging this off but there’s no way he could be.

Colette cries once they’re back at their own house, waiting for the other to show up. She doesn’t want to let any of them out of her sight right now, never knowing when she actually might not see them again. Hannibal pulls her into his lap for much needed snuggling, according to him because he would do this with his younger sisters when he was still at home, apparently. It helps… a little.

The others get there about then and she doesn’t actually much care if they see her like this, even if Astrid sort of side eyes her a little. None of them say anything, though.

“You know,” Hannibal comments, from over Colette’s shoulder as he cradles her against his chest, as the others all gather around, “I think we need to think about how serious this could be. It’s war, and… I know all this signpost thing is over with, but someone easily could end up dead.”

Hiccup looks down. “I know,” he says quietly.

“When I die, it’ll be in the middle of battle, probably winning a war,” Snotlout offers. She thinks he’s half joking, but even he seems more serious than usual.

“That doesn’t actually make me feel much better,” Judith tells him flatly.

Yeah, her either.

Actually, she really doesn’t want to think about this. “Why would we need to talk about it, unless we’re planning to write wills?” Colette asks, which really isn’t funny btu she needs to think of something funny right now, okay?

“I want Toothless!” Snotlout pipes up.

Astrid punches him.

“I was gonna offer you Izzy,” Colette says, just rolling with it, and really, if she wasn’t around, Hookfang probably would be the only one who could really take care of her, “So I’m not sure that’s fair.”

“Judith and Colette get my things,” Hannibal offers dryly, “And you can give my clothes to whoever fits them.”

Wow. She has no idea why they’re talking about, this but at least they’re not talking about the very serious side that… she thinks everyone is becoming really well aware of now.

“I don’t think anyone else would be using my clothes,” Hiccup offers.

“Hannibal could,” Judith says dryly, shoving the mental image into everyone’s minds of Hannibal wearing Hiccup’s way to tight, tiny clothes – not to mention the part where one of the legs are half missing.

Hannibal elbows her.

Colette giggles.

Well, probably not what the others invited Astrid, Snotlout, and Hiccup over for but Colette much prefers this line of conversation. They probably all do. Right now, she’s just going to cling to every moment with all of them she gets and… try not think about why she’s doing that.