Berk.
The place that has been quiet and at peace, at least as a bystander would see. They are all still completely on edge and were waiting for the next dragon attack. They still trained using the dragons that they captured in the arena, keeping the next generation prepared for their return. They never learned Hiccup fought the Red Death and destroyed the dragon's nest to help them survive.
They might not want him around, but Hiccup didn't want them to suffer when he could have helped.
Astrid was currently out whilst the rest of the village was asleep. Her hair is still kept in a braid but her fringes have been cut shorter and are side-swept so that they no longer cover half her face. She now wears a side braid behind her ear and she has also stopped wearing kohl around her eyes. She wears a similar blue shirt, but her Gladiator skirt has fewer spikes on it, and the brown skirt underneath is replaced with a red skirt. She still wears the same shoulder guards and skull clips this time, with brown leather holster straps holding them in place across her upper chest and arm wrappings. She also now has brown leather knee pads over her leggings.
As she was holding up a lantern to see around the area, just outside of the dragon arena, she started to take notice of the fog rolling in. It was starting to make it harder for her to see, but she would still notice approaching ships with lights. They wouldn't be able to make it through this fog without any light or they'd risk running into the land masses.
But as she was facing the open ocean and looking around for any ships, a few shadowy figures dropped from the cliffs. They dropped and landed around the arena where they hid in the bushes. Astrid heard the ruffling and looked around to then try to see if anyone was there. She figured that it was just the work of the wind and nothing else when nothing moved.
Astrid then walked away and was continuing her search and patrol. One of the figures waited until Astrid left the raised their head to reveal it to be Sisu.
Sisu took a few looks around and narrowed her eyes to try and see through the fog. "Okay, all clear."
Then another figure popped their heads out from the bushes and revealed them to be Toothless. "She's right."
Hiccup then poked his head out and he was wearing his dragon armor once again. He raised his helmet and started to look around. "Okay, then let's get to work." He then looked down at the bushes and looked left and right. "You girls ready?"
It had been a few weeks since the battle for Kumandra. After the celebration in Heart, Hiccup had a meeting with the other dragons of Kumandra. They came to an agreement where Hiccup could bring the dragons to Kumandra, not allowing their kind to be hunted. Even though there were many differences, they were still dragon-kind, and so were basically family in their minds.
Namaari then poked her head out of the bushes and rubbed her arms as she was ready to go. Raya poked her head out of the bushes as well, revealing she was wearing basically the same outfit she did during the Druun incident. She didn't want to be wearing her fancy Princess of Heart gowns on this important mission, so this was the best she could do.
"Okay, where are they keeping the dragons?" Raya asks her boyfriend.
Hiccup pointed downward further down the hill towards the Dragon arena. "There. The dragon training arena."
Toothless snarled and growled at the memory of that awful place. Hiccup pet his friend's neck as he knew that would calm him down.
"It's okay, Bud. I know, some bad memories for me, too." Hiccup admitted and sighed. "Let's get this over with."
"I'll take care of the guard," Namaari tells them and sneaked off to deal with Astrid.
Raya noticed that this was bringing up some bad memories for him. "Hiccup, we don't have to do this now."
"No, I'm okay." Hiccup promised and smiled at her. "After all, if it weren't for what happened here, I wouldn't have met you."
Raya smiled and pecked his cheek after hearing that. "And I'll always be thankful for that."
"Aw." Sisu cooed at their cuteness.
"Save it for the castle," Toothless stated as he pushed the two of them away from one another. "We've got a job to do."
Astrid was looking through the fog, trying to see if anyone was approaching but could only make our shadowy-looking figures. She wasn't sure if they were just tricks for the light or if they were actual people. She was getting ready to sound the alarm should it become necessary. But she never got the chance when Namaari came up behind her and wrapped a hand over her mouth, her other hand wrapped around her waist to keep her in one place.
After a bit of struggling to try and escape, Namaari quickly drew one of the Dragon Hunter darts they left behind after they attacked. Having no projectile, she had to get close and personal with this one and injected the dart into Astrid. She struggled a little longer before finally falling and dropping to the ground. Nanaari was careful and slowly lowered her and leaned her against the wall of the arena.
"We're clear," Namaari called out to the others.
Toothless leaped down with Hiccup and Raya whilst Sisu came up from the cliff. They quickly raced to the entrance whilst Hiccup went over to open the main doorway. A few other memories came flooding in as he recalled the first day he came to this arena for dragon training. To help them see through the fog, Hiccup light up Inferno to try and get a better look around.
"At times like this, I still wish I had the other powers from that Gem," Sisu admitted, missing the powers the Gem granted her. "I could have pushed this fog out of the way."
"Yeah, but then we'd have the rest of the village quickly on us." Toothless reminded her.
Sisu didn't even respond as she hadn't thought of that. Hiccup opened up the cage for the Nightmare, recalling their last encounter.
"Hey, buddy." Hiccup greeted as he backed away, keeping his arm up to soothe the dragon. "Remember me?"
The Nightmare snarled and seems to be ready to light itself on fire. Toothless got ready to jump in to defend his friend and rider, but Hiccup raised his hand to stop him.
"It's okay, bud. The last time he saw us, he ended up fighting us." Hiccup soothed the dragon. "I'm not gonna hurt you." The Nightmare snarled as Hiccup approached further and kept his hand out. "It's okay..."
The Nightmare seemed to believe him and calmed down enough for Hiccup to touch his snout and earn his trust. This was the first time Raya and Namaari witnessed how Hiccup soothed dragons, rather than Krogan's approach (something they never witnessed either) and they were amazed. This dragon was three times (if not more) his own size and he managed to calm it down like it was nothing.
"Yeah, see?" Hiccup was happy to finally complete this task. "We're gonna help you. All of you."
Then they wasted no more time running and open the rest of the cages, trying their best to keep the dragons calm. They didn't want to wake up the village as this was meant to be a stealth mission, and they don't have the manpower to take all of Berk.
"Is this all of them?" Sisu asks as she opened the cage for the Nadder, who came out squawking.
Hiccup did a quick headcount as he looked over all of the dragons. Some of them were stretching, happy to finally be out of their cages. Others were thanking their rescuers as the Nadder purred and caressed Raya.
"Whoa, okay, uh, you're welcome." Raya wasn't sure how to react to the attention.
Seemed neither did Namaari as she was getting attention from the Terrible Terror. "Uh, yeah, okay, no thanks is required."
"That's everyone," Toothless confirmed with a nod. "Let's go."
Hiccup looked over to Astrid and knew it was going to get colder. "Hang on." He pulled out the old blanket he would travel with. He wouldn't need it anymore since he would be living on Kumandra in Heart with Raya and her father. He walked over and wrapped the blanket around Astrid to keep her warm. "We don't want humans or dragons to come to harm."
"You mean you don't." Toothless didn't exactly have anything nice to say about the people of Berk. Hiccup was the only exception to that.
"Alright, let's see where else we can visit tonight." Hiccup said as he jumped on Toothless. "Let's check out Berserker and Ourcast Island next."
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The group took off to the sky and the Berk dragons started to follow them under Toothless' instructions. Once visiting land after land and collecting dragon after dragon, they kept to the cover of night to travel as fast as they could.
Once they visited all of the lands, they stopped by the Northern Markets with Namaari. She wanted to take some time to grow and figured getting some distance between Kumandra and herself would be a good thing. To see how other good leaders lead by example, rather than how her mother led. Her mother betrayed everyone and almost destroyed all the lands, and that's something she wanted to try and avoid repeating.
"Thanks for this, Hiccup," Namaari said with a bow.
Hiccup waved it off as just a favor for a friend. "Nah, don't mention it. Remember. If you need to travel far, just ask for Johann. He's a friend and knows me."
"I'll keep that in mind," Namaari promised and walked toward the market to see what she can find. As soon as Hiccup left, Namaari suddenly heard what sounded like chittering. She looked and got ready for a fight and drew her daggers. "Who's there!?"
But to her surprise, instead of some danger or even an animal of sorts, it was the Terrible Terror from the arena. She calmed down and placed her daggers away and was wondering why he was there.
"What are you doing here?" Namaari asks the Terror as if expecting him to answer like Toothless. She then pointed off to the retreating Hiccup and Toothless. "Your ticket to utopia is that way."
But the Terror didn't budge and only started to make its way toward her. Namaari was confused about what it was doing when the Terror jumped and landed on her shoulder like a parrot. It even nuzzled its face against her face, which she couldn't lie and say didn't feel nice.
Namarri just felt a little shocked and then pet the little guy. "Well, if you're sticking with me...you're gonna need a name." The Terror seemed to like that idea as it jumped and screeched. "How about..."
Before she could come up with one, the Terror sneezed and fired a fireball that flew forward and smacked into a rock. Namaari was impressed with the shooting and chuckled.
"That was quite the shot." Namaari complimented, then suddenly came up with a name. "Hey, how about Sharpshot?"
The Terror screeched and seemed to like the name and squawked in happiness. Namaari chuckled and pet Sharpshot's head and walked off. A lot has changed for her as she needed to find out what kind of leader she had to be for her people to lead her people.
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After saying their farewell to Namaari, Hiccup, and Raya was leading the herd of dragons on their way home. They saw the overjoyed dragons that were following them and were happy to have rescued them. Giving them the freedom from being hunted for either sport or money. As they were trying to make it back to Kumandra, it seemed Toothless noticed something further down his eyesight.
"What is it, bud?" Hiccup was curious to know what was up.
"Seems that there's a shipwreck below us," Toothless reported to them.
"Shipwreck?" Raya and Hiccup both were a little confused.
"Should we check it out?" Raya asks Hiccup.
Hiccup decided it could be for the best and thought they could at least help if someone was hurt. They couldn't be any trouble for them to take care of if this was some sort of trap. They flew downward and they saw it was a smaller ship than they were expecting. In fact, it looked more like a dingy that had a small mass covering it. From the look of things, it was washed up on shore during a storm or something. Raya was the first to make it to the ground with Sisu and walked over to the wreck
"Whoa," Sisu commented as she walked over to the wreck. "What happened here?"
"Must have washed up on shore through either a giant gust of wind or a giant wave." Hiccup took a few guesses as he jumped off of Toothless to walk over to it.
"Uh, Hiccup? You should see this." Raya called him over to the ship.
Hiccup was a little curious about what she found and made his way over to her side. That's when he saw that there was someone inside the shipwreck that seemed to have been knocked unconscious. She had long black hair framing her face with a fringe parted on the right side and a side braid placed over her left shoulder. She wears a long-sleeve, light gray shirt with a black, short-sleeved hooded shirt over it, a brown leather vest, wristbands, dark gray pants, and brown boots. She has three black belts, as well as one that holds a horn.
Hiccup reached into the wreck and shook the unconscious girl to see if she was alive. She started to stir and wake up and when she saw the two she jumped back in fear. Backing up against the back of the shipwreck, she was worried about what was going to happen with these two watching her.
"Hey, it's okay. We're friends." Hiccup quickly assured her.
The girl was a little concerned and stayed back a little. She still coughed as she was dehydrated. "Do you have any water?"
Hiccup and Raya did indeed pack up a few resources just in case they needed them, but weren't entirely sure if they had any left. But that's when Sisu pushed through and was carrying a bottle full of water.
"Someone called for water?" Sisu asks.
But her sudden appearance caused the girl to freak out even more and even scream a little at her sudden appearance. Toothless then came in and was wondering what made her shriek.
"So that was clear, was it the talking that scared you, or the fact she's a dragon?" Toothless was curious to know.
Except for the appearance of a Night Fury only caused her to freak out even more. Hiccup pushed the two out of the way, silently scolding them and handing the girl the water. The girl was a little hesitant but then took the water from them and drank some, feeling a lot better.
"Sorry about our friends." Hiccup apologized for their dragons. "They were just curious."
"You wanna come out of there?" Raya asks as she gestured out of the ship.
The girl seemed skeptical about the idea knowing there were dragons out there. "Are you sure that it's safe?"
"Of course, come out and meet them." Hiccup assured the girl.
The girl then exited the boat slowly and noticed that there was an entire flock full of dragons around her and the boat. "What are all of them doing here?"
"We were rescuing them," Raya explains and holding her hand out. "My name's Raya." She then gestured to Hiccup who was easing some of the spooked dragons of Heather. "That's Hiccup. And you are...?"
"Heather." She introduced herself to the two of them.
"So, how'd you end up out here?" Hiccup was a little curious to learn.
Heather started to hold herself and recalled the memory. "Another village came to my home...they took over the island, and..." Tears started to fall down her face as the memory flashed in her mind. "It was a massacre...I was able to escape. But my mother and father...they weren't so lucky. I only recognized one of them." She then became fueled with anger when she recalled who it was that killed her family. "Dagur. Leader of the Berserkers."
Hiccup was shocked to hear Dagur was currently the leader of the Berserkers and was wondering what became of Oswald. Raya was thinking of the name, feeling she had heard of it before.
"Wait, wasn't Dagur that guy who used you for knife-throwing targets or trying to drown you?" Raya asks Hcicup.
Hiccup nodded as they were indeed the same person. "Yep. That would be Dagur."
Raya looked at Heather and felt sorry for the girl who lost everything. She felt that they needed to do something to help her and couldn't just leave her there. "Why don't you come with us?"
"What?" Hiccup, Toothless, Sisu, and Heather asked simultaneously.
"You can come with us to Kumandra and we can help you," Raya explains and gestures to the open water. "You can stay for as long as you like. I know that they would willingly accept someone like you. My dad's the chief, he can figure something out for you."
Heather smiled and looked at the dragons who were all calm in her presence. "Thank you."
"Want a ride?" Sisu asks as she came closer to the two.
Heather was still a little confused about the concept of a talking dragon. "How do your dragons talk?"
"That...is a long story." Hiccup admitted with a laugh. "But really, only Toothless can talk. With the acceptance of Sisu and others of her kind."
"Oh, this flight now comes with some entertainment." Sisu was excited to recall what happened to them on their quest to save Kumandra.
Hiccup then got Toothless to get the dragons ready for flight as it seems some took the moment to try and rest. They then took off to the sky as Heather was taking a moment to try and get used to being this high up. Going with as many dragons as they could, knowing there were dozens of other dragons they would need to help later.
But they all started to get used to one another and Hiccup started to recall the story of how he came to Kumandra. That was their entertainment throughout the entire flight as they made their way to their new home.
Kumandra.