well, well, well... :D I'm honestly making myself laugh. Because it is... what, four years? since my last update. I haven't forgotten this story and I'm actually pretty close to finishing it. I just... didn't feel like writing? :D

Anyway, thanks to everyone who is still following this story and to NEW people who found this and read my work. It really means a lot to me and I'm happy that you're enjoying this. I can only hope you will stick with me and I'll try to finish this in some kind of sensible time frame.

Thanks again and enjoy!

On Berk, elders were saying that before warrior dies, he or she sees all their great victories before their eyes. Her mother said that it weren't only battles, but every important event in one's life. Ruffnut had no idea if it was because she wasn't such a warrior or because her subconsciousness didn't deem anything what happened to her important enough to show now, but the only thing she saw while falling down from her dragon, was rapidly approaching stony ground.

That was all she remembered. She couldn't recall the moment Fishlegs caught her or moments after that, when they supposedly dragged her into the caves and tried to hide. She didn't remember meeting others, her world was suddenly like in the fog, shock from coming so close to death (and for once not by her own fault) clouding her mind.

It wasn't until Tuffnut suddenly appeared by her side and crushed her - and her butchered shoulder - in a tight hug. Pain and close proximity of her brother managed to snap her out of shock. She looked around, her eyes automatically searching for Hiccup, but he was nowhere to be found. Her only companions were Fishlegs, her brother and Astrid.

"Where are the others?" she asked, subconsciously squeezing Tuff's hand in her good one. Astrid held a flask with mead to her mouth and while Ruffnut was drinking, she shared what she knew.

"We saw Eret run in the caves not far from here, so Snotlout went looking for him." She seemed reluctant to proceed, but Ruff prompted her to do so. With heavy sight, Astrid continued.

"After you fell, we tried to get you inside. Last time we saw Chief, was when he was running to Hiccup... who was head to head with Drago." Astrid paused, waiting for Ruff's reaction. Younger girl just nodded.

"And Gobber with Valka?"

"I didn't see them at all."

"Right." Ruffnut took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. This didn't have to mean anything. They didn't know for sure. And she wasn't going to assume the worst this time. No. Hiccup already got his lifetime of "appearing dead when not really dead". She was not falling for that again. And he better not pull this stunt again either.

Ruffnut turned to her brother, promptly checking him for injuries. Tuff was still adrenaline high from the battle and managed to sit by her only for few minutes, then he jumped up (absently reassuring her that he was in fact really fine) and started pacing around, his voice cracking with delight, when he was describing to them how awesome it was to blow up and burn down stuff. His rant was interrupted only when a rumbling noises echoed from the side tunnel. Astrid immediately jumped in attention, axe in her hand battle ready, obviously prepared to protect them to her last breath. Thankfully, it wasn't necessary, for from the dark in the hallway emerged not only Snotlout with Eret, but Gobber as well. And the blacksmith was bringing them very welcomed news.

Still, Ruffnut wasn't one hundred percent ready to start celebrating that they all survived, until she saw Hiccup with her very own eyes. Counted his limbs and such. But when she stepped out of the tunnel, still hanging from Snotlout, she didn't have much of a chance to check her friend properly. Hiccup didn't waste a second and in two, three long steps moved right before her. Before Ruff could utter a word, Hiccup clasped her in a tight hug (thankfully avoiding her injured shoulder). For once not caring that anyone could see them (and also not really seeing anything else she could do), Ruffnut returned the hug, clasping Hiccup with her healthy arm as close as she could. They were doing this more and more often. And frankly, Ruffnut couldn't find it in her heart to mind. At all. And certainly not what followed.

They parted, just far enough to look each other in the eyes. Ruff moved her hand to stroke his cheek. Thanks to his helmet, Hiccup didn't have single scratch on his face.

"You are okay," she whispered, half asking, half stating. Hiccup didn't answer with words, he only nodded. He leaned forward, his forehead now touching hers, one of his hands resting on her waist until now made its way up to her hair. He whispered her name and then closed the final couple of inches separating them, giving her clumsy, sweet and absolutely perfect kiss.

World around once again disappeared in the fog, but this time the good kind, not scary one. Ruffnut pressed closer to Hiccup, following his lips when he tried to lean back. She felt him smile and she didn't care. She smiled too. This was right.

No words were needed, when they finally separated. Ruffnut head was swooning, it could be caused by pain or the blood loss from her leg injury, but she didn't let that burst their little bubble of absolute happiness in this madness. But, unfortunately, someone from outside of bubble managed that.

Ruff didn't know how long they just stood there and stared at each other when Eret's amused voice interrupted their moment.

"All right, lovebirds, save it for latter," he said. Ruffnut and Hiccup both turned to look at him, but they didn't make any move to separate themselves.

"Yeah! It's pretty gross. I mean – do you even realize who are you kissing? It's my sister, dude! Ugh..." said Tuffnut and only then Hiccup blushed, stammered something under his breath. He still didn't let go of her and led Ruff to one of the close stones to sit on. He held her hand the whole time Astrid was fixing her shoulder, plopping the joint back where it belonged and then cleaning and bandaging her leg. He only left when his mother returned. Then he stood and went help her with treating his father's injuries.

Astrid handed Ruff a flask again and piece of smoked fish, having knowing smile on her face the whole time. Ruffnut didn't bother to say anything to her, just rolled her eyes. She was sure she was going to hear a lot about that if they by some crazy miracle survive this.

Astrid sat down beside her, Eret immediately taking place nearby. Tuffnut plopped down by Ruff's other side, grinning stupidly. One moment twins eyes crossed and Ruff could see her brother making disgusted faces at her, no doubt thinking Hiccup insane for indulging in something like this with his sister. Ruff gave him mandatory shove in the back, but otherwise let him be. She couldn't find it in her to truly mind. She was not ashamed one bit by what happened. She was kind of proud of it, actually.

Another few minutes went by in complete silence, only sounds of Stoick's moans and food rotating among them were echoing through the cave.

"The wound is deep, but the blast burned it and thus partially stopped the bleeding. He should... recover," said Valka, when she and Hiccup finally finished patching up their chief and sat down in the circle rest of them made. Hiccup accepted the flask Snotlout handed him and took long swing from it. Ruffnut watched him, suddenly noticing he looked years older than he did this morning. She wanted to stand up and go to him, be close to him again. But then Gobber spoke.

"What are we going to do now?" All looks automatically turned to Hiccup and Valka. Mother and son exchanged a brief glance and then Valka started:

"First thing Drago will want to do, is to take care of the new dragons, getting them out of traps and integrate them in his army. He will concentrate on that. Right now, we are not his priority. But as soon as he's finished with that, he will storm these caves and hunt us down." She sighed and Ruffnut heard Astrid murmur under her nose:

"Naturally."

"So what will we do? How can we get out of here? He took all our dragons." asked Tuffnut, his good mood finally dropping to the same depressing level as others. Ruff patted his back, ready to say something, but Hiccup beat her to it.

"Not all of them," he said, giving them all kind of defeated smile, like he already knew what they are going to think about his new plan.

"What do you mean?" asked Snotlout, frowning. Hiccup turned to him and started to explain.

"Young won't listen to any command." They all immediately understood.

"You want to escape on baby dragons? That's... insane," said Astrid, shaking her head.

"It's the only option we have left."

"We will never make it out of the island."

"We won't have to."

"Again. What?!" Hiccup sighed and stood up.

"We only need to get close enough so I can talk to Toothless. Once I'll have him, we will get at least the chance to take the rest of our dragons back and attack the Alpha." Everyone shut up and stared at him. First to recuperate was Gobber.

"Shouldn't we rather try get to Berk? He's still going there, you know," he pointed out. Hiccup run his hands through his hair.

"Even if we could, what good would it make? Berk won't stand a chance when Drago comes to its shores. Our only option is to fight with him here." He was probably right, logically, Ruffnut knew it. But she still had to say something.

"You know, this seems a little too crazy, even on my scale." Hiccup turned at her and tiny smirk appeared on his lips.

"Thank you," he said and Ruffnut rolled her eyes.

"For once, that wasn't a compliment," she said, meaning it only half seriously. Hiccup noticed. His smile got a fraction bigger, just for her, when he replied:

"Yeah, well... I'm taking what I can get."

After that, no one objected any more. They finished their food, then Eret and Gobber put Stoick on the stretcher they quickly made of theirs spears, Ruff let Snotlout help her walking again and they all headed deeper to the caves, following Valka to the last safe corners of her Sanctuary where little dragons were hidden. They were lucky, no soldiers crossed their path.

They finally found what they were looking for.

The cave was swarming with little baby dragons of all kinds, happily squeaking over each other, obviously having no idea what was going on outside. Not knowing that their parents were essentially prisoners of war.

They settled Stoick down (he lost his consciousness during the move) and Hiccup helped Ruff sit beside him, before he went with his mother catch some of the bigger youngsters, ones that would be able to fly with them on their backs. It was more difficult than expected. Young dragons just really weren't made for listening anyone. But after several tries (and several fails) they managed to get eight dragons whose kind Ruff saw for the first time.

She watched the buzzing around her. Valka was now clearly in charge, ordering everyone to strip down their armour to minimum and allowing everyone just one weapon. Babies couldn't carry more. Her eyes followed Hiccup as he started put down pieces of his protection gear. She couldn't help it when a small snicker escaped her lips. With his body constitution, it wouldn't probably matter how much armour he wore. Hiccup looked at her, smirking back and Ruffnut had a feeling he knew exactly what earned him that reaction.

"Just for your information, I'm not that scrawny any more," he muttered when he got on his knees next to her and started putting one of his leather armbands on her healthy forearm. Ruffnut watched him tying the laces carefully.

"You could fool me," she whispered and Hiccup chuckled, but sobered very quickly again. He was done with lacing, but didn't let go of her hand. Running his his thumb gently over her palm, he looked out of one of the cracks in the ice outside. They were very nearly in the middle of the Sanctuary, but simultaneously very high, so it was possible to actually look out and see what was going on there. Not that the picture was any welcome.

Just like ants, Drago's men were running on the snow planes outside, readying dragons and some of then undoubtedly on their way inside of the ice structure in purpose of finding them and bringing them before the madman himself. Or kill them on the spot. Ruffnut really wasn't sure which variant Drago preferred. She was probably about to find out, though. As only one not being able to fly (beside Stoick, of course), she had to stay behind. And that meant pretty good chance of being apprehended by searching soldiers sooner or latter, no matter how far into Sanctuary she was. Well, thought Ruffnut, that was about to be interesting. Stoick was out cold, she couldn't move properly and all she had for help was bunch of uncontrollable babies.

Her musings were interrupted by Hiccup gently touching her face, making her look at him.

"You should be able to see what is going on outside," he said quietly, nodding towards the ice window. His tone was heavily laced with worry. Ruffnut tried to smile though.

"Wouldn't want to miss the fun." Hiccup tried to reciprocate the smile, but failed, managing only a flat:

"Right." He was desperate, realized Ruffnut. Terrified. She mirrored his gesture from before and touched his face.

"Hiccup?" He stared at her for a few seconds, but then suddenly clasped her face in both hands, leaning so close their noses were almost touching. Frantically, he pleaded:

"Ruff... promise me you will get out of here. If we loose... please. Don't wait for us. Just... take dad and leave. Go to Eret's ship or Berk or anywhere... but don't stay here." He was absolutely serious and it broke Ruffnut's heart a little to refuse him.

"I can't promise you that."

"Ruffnut..." he tried again, but she interrupted him. Clasping his face back, she whispered eagerly:

"No, listen to me. Everything... everyone I care about is here, on this island. I won't leave Tuff and you and others behind. I won't. I can't." She saw it in his eyes he was ready to start convincing her, but she was sparred of this by Valka, who just in that moment loudly announced:

"It's time." Ruffnut felt Hiccup tense. Before she could talk herself out of it, she pressed little kiss on his right cheek. No other words were necessary. Hiccup stood up and without looking back marched towards his new dragon. Everyone followed him and Ruffnut could only watch as her friends were leaving, all of them looking grave, not having any illusions about what's waiting for them outside. She only managed to grab Tuff's hand and haul him into a hug (which he resisted significantly less vehemently than usual) before even her brother left.

Ruffnut was left alone, with only Stoic as company (and she wasn't about to kid herself - her Chief wasn't the best companion even when conscious). Nothing happened for several minutes, only noise she heard was Fishlegs' voice coming from some tunnel far away, screaming:

"We're gonna die!" And her brother yelling in response:

"This is awesome!" She chuckled. For a second it seemed just like any other day in her life.

The illusion didn't last for long, however. Few minutes later, human voices and dragons roaring raised up outside. Ruff dragged herself toward the window as quickly as she managed, getting there just in time to see her friends heading right in the middle of battlefield, to the Great Bewilderbeast himself. Part of them separated and started throwing rocks and pieces of ice on the big dragon, while another part was protecting them from incoming arrows. Dragons under King's influence didn't attracted them yet and Ruffnut wondered why.

She got her answer only seconds later. One of the baby dragon riders was now face to face with Drago himself - and with Toothless. Ruffnut didn't have to guess twice to know it was Hiccup.

Her stomach knotted in fear. She believed in him, of course. And she believed in Toothless. And she knew that the bond of friendship between two of them was stronger than anyone could imagine. But was it enough? Was it strong enough to beat power of Dragon King and his master? Ruffnut certainly hoped so, for all their lives depended on it, but she wasn't able to shake off the nagging feeling of unease. After all, not even Valka herself probably knew how the Bewilderbeast exactly controlled other dragons and if that control could be successfully severed. Her only experience was with the "good" Dragon King, who, apparently, didn't felt the need of brainwashing the dragons around him into submission.

She of course didn't hear a word that was said between Hiccup and Drago - or more accurately, if Hiccup reaching towards his Night Fury was any indication - between Hiccup and Toothless. But whatever it was, it... worked. Ruffnut wished to be close enough to hear, because according to the visuals, it was all going better than anyone could hope for.

For a minute it did seemed like Toothless is going to blast Hiccup down anyway, but then... something changed. And Ruffnut could only watch in awe as her two friends reconnected. Drago realised too late his mistake and tried to get the control over the dragon back, but it was no use. In one angry snap, Toothless grabbed Drago's staff and threw him out of saddle. And Ruffnut couldn't help but yell excitedly when Hiccup jumped on his friend's back, taking control over his tail fin and triumphantly flying away from Bewilderbeast's reach, rest of dragon riders leaving their posts and heading for safety too.

They won first round. But nothing was decided yet.