A/N: Hey, everyone! I'm so sorry this took so long, I was honestly not expecting it to. This is also not the final chapter, sorry... it's really supposed to be, but they keep ending up longer than I think they will be! Well, that's all I have to say. Please enjoy and thanks for hanging in there!

Astrid spends far too much time of her next moment staring up at the sky, at the spot Hiccup went from a boy on a dragon to speck in the fold of the dragon hordes.

He was gone.

Berk was in ruins.

People were dying.

And now the screaming death was coming to finish it all. As if she didn't already need the cherry on top of this disaster of a day.

Was there anything else should could really do at this point? Is there really anything you can do against an unstoppable, all-powerful monster of a dragon with a thirst for blood?

"Astrid!" Gustav reappears from where he'd gone to hide, his sword still clutched to his side tightly. He scuttles over to her, glancing up at the sky ever few steps. "What happened? Why did he leave?" he asks nervously.

She doesn't know what to say. She's not sure there's anything she can say that would make any sense… or that wouldn't scare the living daylight out of him. It wouldn't do any good for her to cause a panic.

Astrid hasn't taken her eyes off the sky, but she can feel her sight grow unfocused. It wasn't like her to shut down like this—she'd never done something like this before. But the feelings of hopelessness were creeping in, flooding her mind and locking up her joints. She couldn't come up with a single positive way to spin it, and she feels her knees shake, threatening to give out. It was like the end of the world.

"Look out!" Gustav screams, pushing her down. Astrid doesn't fight him, she doesn't really have proper control over her body, anyway. She falls into a crouch, and Gustav ducks down beside her.

A plasma blast flies over their heads, nearly turning Gustav into a singe spot on the ground. Astrid feels a dramatic swoop of wind next to her ear—and then her boots are no longer touching gravel, her hands are no longer pressed into the dirt, and she's in the air.

Something grabs her firmly by the belt, holds her aloft as she sees the ground quickly becoming farther and farther away.

Hiccup tosses Astrid over the back of his saddle like a piece of cargo. Astrid flops forward, catches her breath. With that one good knock, her senses seem to return to her. She recognizes the back of his scruffy head, and the fight returns within the next swoop of Toothless' wings.

"Hiccup!" She screeches, watching the ground become too distant to jump. The building below her become pebbles, Gustav becomes no bigger than her thumb. In a few more seconds, they'd probably be leaving the island. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm the villain, remember?" He calls nonchalantly over the wind. "I take what I want."

"You can't take me!" Astrid huffs.

"Sure I can. I was going to leave you behind, respect your wishes, blah blah blah." He makes a yapping motion with his hand. "But then I just figured you'd get over it. You'll thank me one day, even if you don't appreciate it now."

"I've had enough of this, Hiccup! Put me down, we have to go back to the village and stop this!" Astrid says, climbing onto her elbows behind him. The saddle is uncomfortably pressed into her chest, but she struggles to right herself while they were in motion.

But he doesn't say anything else, ignoring her pleads to reason with him.

And then Astrid did maybe one of the stupider things she'd admit to doing: She kicked Hiccup's foot.

"Odin almighty, Astrid!" Hiccup swears, shifting himself so he'd be out of her reach.

Astrid kicks him again, her legs free and unhindered by the saddle thanks to the way Hiccup tossed her, and with a simple click, the metal strap that held Hiccup's boot in place on Toothless' tail snaps right off. Hiccup's foot slips free of its place.

Toothless screeches, losing his ability to keep them aloft. The air seems to fall right out from beneath them as Toothless flails his wings and the trio begin to fall right out of the sky. Astrid awkwardly grabs on to Hiccup for dear life.

Yelling reassurances to his dragon with a calmness that tells her he'd probably done this before, Hiccup grabs tightly on to the saddle with one hand and wraps an arm around Astrid with the other. The ground gets very, very close.

Hiccup smacks his foot against the mechanism like you would a brake.

Click. Click.

He works his ankle, clearly trying to force the parts back in place, but nothing seems to be happening. Maybe the strap wasn't the only thing Astrid had broken. "Goddammit!" He swears loudly above the wind.

The trees below seem to rush up to meet them all at once. "Everyone hold tight!" Hiccup yells as they hit the trees.

Astrid almost immediately loses her grip on Hiccup as the branches of the trees rip at her, whipping her face and her arms and nearly tearing them apart if Hiccup hadn't been holding on to her so tightly. Toothless twists midair, wrapping Astrid and Hiccup up in his wings to shield them from most of the branches. Still, they grab onto her clothes and twist into her hair with a bone-crunching oof! they slam into the trunk of a massive tree. Or at least, Astrid thinks they do; her eyes are shut tightly.

Finally, with a final and momentum-stopping thump, the trio hit the mossy ground. The landing is not soft; Astrid's teeth chatter and her head slams into Hiccup's side. The nails of his hand seem to dig in painfully to her back, his knee hitting her hip hard enough to probably bruise it.

When Astrid finally opens her eyes, everything is dark. Then Toothless' wings fall away, exposing them to the sunlight, and she breathes out a sigh of relief. She wasn't dead… yet.

For a moment there's nothing but silence apart from their heavy breathing and the rustling of the trees they'd just upset.

Then Hiccup groans, lifting his chin to look back at Toothless. "You okay, bud?" He asks.

Toothless grunts noncommittally.

Hiccup sighs, letting his head fall back to the ground. "Thanks for blocking the fall, I owe you one."

The three of them continue to lie on the ground, catching their breaths. It was a miracle they'd all survived that tumble. Astrid's basically caught between Hiccup's side and his arm, and as much as she wants to jump away from him… the will to smack him, and all of her anger, has pretty much evaporated as quickly as it appeared.

And judging by Hiccup's tone, he's dropped a lot of the crazy. "You're an idiot, you know that?" He says to her, glancing her way.

Astrid blows a sigh into the fabric of his shirt. "I know. That… wasn't a good idea."

"You think?" He says sarcastically before rather gently pushing her aside. "Come on, get up. I've got to figure out what you broke."

Astrid tries her best to crawl off Toothless' wing as carefully as she can, not wanting to hurt the dragon at all. Hiccup takes a leaping step off, and Toothless rolls over and climbs to his feet. The dragon shuffles his wings together. If he could talk, by the look he's giving her he'd probably say something similar to what Hiccup said; maybe mixed with: "and you're lucky I don't smoke you for it."

Hiccup gets down on a knee next to Toothless' tail contraption. He starts fiddling with it, and with every twist of his wrist the gears make that empty clicking noise. Astrid watches over Hiccup's shoulder as two pieces that look like they should snap together continually don't.

Hiccup sighs, hanging his head. "Fantastic, Astrid. I'm going to need some tools to fix this. Of which, thanks to my father, were confiscated when they arrested me." He looks over his shoulder, glowering at her.

"Hey, I'm not the one that swooped out of the sky and kidnapped you! For the second time!"

Hiccup scoffs. "You aren't serious right now! You're telling me you'd rather sit there and wait to die than come with me?"

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"Yes, it really is!"

"Why'd you come back, anyway?" Astrid asks, changing the subject and catching him off guard.

He doesn't answer right away, and Astrid doesn't wait for him.

"You know what? Forget it. Bottom line is, I don't want to come with you. Even if it's impossible," She sighs heavily. "I'm not going to leave the island, even if there's no hope, I'm going to stay and fight for Berk. It's what I have to do." With that, Astrid spins around and begins marching in the direction of the village.

The sound of footsteps behind her makes her grit her teeth. She turns to face him. "Are you following me?"

"So what if I was?" He asks.

"Don't! You have no right to go back to the village, not after what you've done!" She says angrily.

"Well," Hiccup puts a finger on his chin. "Last I checked, it was you who broke Toothless' tail. And it was my father you stole my tools. And as 'brave' and 'noble' as you're being, I'm definitely not staying here when the screaming death arrives. So I need to get something to fix the part that's broken."

"Use a stick." Astrid grits. "I thought you were so great with building things?"

He sighs heavily, but continues to follow her with Toothless at his heels. "Do you really want me to be here when the screaming death comes? Toothless and I will be devoured. Who made you the authority on who gets to live and who gets to die?"

She doesn't stop walking, even if she doesn't want the pair of them following her. She was sure Hiccup would know his way back, anyhow. She has to get back to the village, she has to try and figure something out. She couldn't waste any more time arguing with Hiccup, not when it had nearly the same effectiveness as arguing with a rock.

Maybe this is exactly what she should have resigned herself to from the beginning. Maybe she couldn't really change his mind. But she still can't find it in herself not to back down.

"And who gave you that power, Hiccup? Who told you you could pick and choose the people you think deserve to die?!" She fights the urge to look back at his as she continues to move forward. She wants to gage his reaction, but realizes she may be better off just hoping and not knowing than seeing that everything she said had no effect… again. "You can't just bring an army of dragon and the screaming death to Berk because you think the village deserves it. It's not your call, and you know that!"

"I don't have a choice, Astrid." He says coldly. "It's the humans or the dragons, you know that."

"You don't have to do anything!" Astrid says. How could he say he had no choice in the matter? Destroying buildings and houses Vikings worked hard to build? Calling a horde of dragons to threaten people? Mowing people down in the streets, killing them all in cold blood?

"You keep saying the same things, Astrid." Hiccup says. "I know what you're trying to do, but it's never going to work. It's always been too late." She can almost hear his dark smile. "I already decided who I am. I know you tried, and you made a really great effort. But you'll never change me, I'll…" His voice trails off, the sound of his boots squishing the mud behind her stops abruptly.

Without realizing, Astrid turns around to look at him. The crease in his brow is finally smoothed out, as he glances down at the ground, searching. He looks absolutely lost for a moment, as if his purpose had suddenly been snatched away from him, like his world was crashing down around him. Toothless stands next to his friend looking absolutely bewildered.

Then it all clicks. The thing he'd been saying, over and over, his excuse for everything he did was that the Vikings could never change. If they couldn't change, then he wouldn't have to feel guilty about killing them. But if people didn't change after all, then Hiccup couldn't tell her he had changed. If you think about it like that, Astrid had been right the entire time… Hiccup was still the good person she'd been telling him he always was.

Hiccup leans himself against Toothless, as if he might collapse. His whole world is falling down around him, right out from under him, Astrid realizes. Was that really all it took for him to realize?

Seemingly unable to cope, Hiccup sinks to ground against Toothless. The dragon looks over at his friend, concern in his wide green eyes.

"My mother…" Hiccup whimpers, tucking his knees into himself. "My mother never came back here, not once. She didn't think anyone would ever be able to change. And when she found me, I know she got the idea that maybe she could come back her one day with the dragons. That maybe I wouldn't be the only one. And I knew she missed the island… I knew she missed my dad, but I discouraged her. I was so full of anger. Eventually she forgot about it, she wanted to go exploring. She wanted it to be the two of us, discovering everything dragons had to offer. And then… then…" He struggles to continue.

Astrid takes a tentative step towards him, her defenses quickly crumbling. "Hey, it's okay. You don't have to tell me."

"She told me I was brave, that I had strong heart and a strong soul. If she saw me now…" He looks up at Astrid, his eyes glistening slightly. "What have I done? I…" his hands begin shaking. "I killed people. I thought I had evolved, that I'd become stronger than everyone else. But my hatred blinded me. I'm no better than them… just destroying what I can't be bothered to understand."

This time she doesn't stop herself from crossing over to him. He doesn't fight her, allowing her to pull him into her side. He looks like he's really struggling to keep it together. "Everything you've done… everything you still do, it's not out of hate. It's out of love, the love you have for the dragons. The village turned its back on you, it's not surprising that you thought it was the other way around."

"All She ever wanted was to live in peace." He mumbles into her shoulder. "After Toothless became the alpha, I could have made it all stop. I just wanted to protect them… but now so many are dead, and they didn't have to… be…"

"Enough, Hiccup. I never thought you were a bad person, okay? I always knew, and you did too you just needed to be reminded."

"How can I, after everything I've done?"

"Because you did everything you could to avoid this, even if you think you didn't. You tried so hard to scare everyone off so you wouldn't have to fight them. You knew it would still hurt you to do this. Because you went out of your way to save every baby nadder. Because you didn't want to hurt our friends. Because…" She tries to level her gaze at him, but he won't meet her eyes. "Because you came back for me."

He sniffles. "I came back for you because I was selfish. I did it for myself."

"No, listen to me, you're doing the same thing now as you were before! You are not a bad person, or a selfish person, Hiccup, you are good. Believe in what I'm telling you, please. You're that same person I knew five years ago."

He finally looks up at her, shows the tear stains on his cheeks. "There's nothing we can do, you gotta believe me. It's too late for the island, the screaming death can't be stopped. I'm sorry."

"I can't accept that." Astrid whispers, feeling herself sag, but not wanting to show it. She had to make him believe there was still a way, they could always come up with a way.

Sniffling again, Hiccup runs the back of his hand across his face, mopping up the water. He takes a strong, deep breath before looking back at Astrid, the fog in his eyes cleared. He laughs wryly. "It doesn't matter whether you accept it or not. It's going to happen. That's why we have to get out of here."

"No." Hiccup shakes his head anyway. "We have to go back. We have to stop it."

"How? Don't you think I've ever thought about that, ever considered a way to kill the screaming death? Anything that gets in its way dies, human or dragon; it's a menace to everyone. But it has no weaknesses, it's not supposed to."

Astrid falls silent again, not sure what to suggest. "Then we have to go back and evacuate the village. We have to warn them."

"Do you think they'll listen? They wouldn't leave when I told them I'd destroy the village. They're not going to leave over one dragon… even if it's the deadliest species ever."

"There… there has to be something we can do."

"Astrid…" He sighs heavily. "I've tried everything. This isn't the first time the screaming death has wandered back into the archipelago, and every time I've had to distract it. It's too smart, now. And its mother has just been killed, it's not going to rest until it gets its revenge."

Sighing, Astrid leans into Hiccup as much as he was leaning into her. "They need our help more than ever, though."

He doesn't comment. "It's a death sentence, don't you understand?"

leans a hand on the small space between them, shrugging a shoulder forward. Astrid's hand falls to her sides. His hair is ruffled by the waves of coursing wind, the corner of his mouth turned up in a spiritless smile. Where the joy and sparkle of adventure should be in his eyes, there's nothing but aimless sorrow.

He doesn't know what to do, what to feel, she realizes. Doesn't know if he's even allowed for to ask for her to take her back, if he's allowed to want to stand up for the island. But when your moral code of the past few years suddenly disappears in a puff of smoke, she supposed that could happen to a man.

Before she can say anything, a great rush or warm wind presses against them from the direction of the village. Astrid looks back over her shoulder and sees a great pillar of fire spurt into the air from between the trees, followed by a morbid column of black smoke. Something big was going up in flames.

"The screaming death?" Astrid whispers, watching the giant fire. They weren't far from the village now, just close enough to see the destruction.

"Not it's style." Hiccup growls. "It doesn't use its fire much, let alone blow things up."

"But I thought you evacuated all the dragons from the island?"

Hiccup looks at Toothless, who nods. "We did, everyone should be gone."

"RAAAAAAAA!" A chorus of gruff voices echo from a distance. It sounds like a battle cry, but it can't be. There's nothing to fight…

Hiccup struggles out from between Astrid's grasp, climbing onto his feet. He looks up at the line of houses before him, at the cloud of billowing smoke. "The hunters."

Astrid scrambles to her feet next to him. "What do you mean, 'the hunters'?"

"They must have followed us." He mutters, hand going to his belt, where his sword should be, but coming up empty handed. His hands clench tightly. "The dragon eye is back at the mountain, it's not even here."

"Hunters…" Astrid murmurs, barely listening. The hunters… destructive, bloodthirsty killers. And now they were here, in the village. They were nothing like Hiccup, they had no good side to appeal to.

"Astrid, wait!" Hiccup yells in vain as she takes off towards the village. Astrid's not sure if he follows after her, all she can hear is the sound of her own blood pounding her ears.

She breaks through the treeline ferociously batting the brush aside. She doesn't stop running until she reaches the nearest building, pressing her back to the wood as she catches her breath. She peeks around the corner of the house, wanting to flush the hunters out but also knowing that it's smarter to find them herself. She had to be discreet if she didn't want to get spotted, she would have to—

"Look out!" Hiccup shoves her out of the way right as an arrow digs itself into the ground where Astrid was standing a moment ago.

Astrid stumbles out of the way. She follows the direction of the arrow and sees a man in an unfamiliar helmet standing on the roof of a house precariously. The roofs of the houses in Berk were severely slanted and narrow, and the man looked like he was a good gust of wind away from toppling over, although he didn't look bothered as he grinned down at them.

"Are you with Ryker?" Hiccup demands from the hunter. "It'd be in your best interest to tell me!"

The hunter ignores them, notching another arrow.

"Shut up and hold still!" The hunter yells, letting his next arrow fly at Hiccup.

With the sound of rapid flapping, Toothless leaps in the air, claws digging into the roof of the house before them. The dragon growls loudly, baring sharp teeth and snapping at the man. Suddenly terrified, the hunter screams and loses his balance, toppling backwards and falling to the ground, landing heavily on his back.

"Nice job, bud." Hiccup says as Toothless slides back down the side of the building and lands delicately on his feet.

The hunter looks dazed for a moment before his eyes focus in on Astrid as she stands above him. He scowls at her.

"How'd you find this island? Where are you getting in from?" She asks him.

The hunter says nothing, his face growing dangerously red. Astrid notices his hand twitch near his belt where there's a small dagger wrapped in its sheath.

Hiccup doesn't fail to notice, either, and promptly stomps on the man's wrist. Hard. The hunter howls, trying to pull his poor arm free but unable to under Hiccup's boot. Astrid looks over at him, glaring.

Hiccup shrugs. "Don't tell me he wouldn't have done the same to us." He doesn't sound sorry.

"But people will hear—" She doesn't see the point in arguing, and looks back at the hunter. "I'm not going to stop him from continuing if you don't start talking." She says to him.

As if to emphasize the point, Hiccup reaches over and grabs the dagger himself. "And we all know I wouldn't have a problem with doing that." If that wasn't enough, Toothless growls threateningly, skirting around Hiccup.

The man lifts his head, takes one good look at the dragon and blanches. "Okay, okay! Ryker's here, I just don't know where, I swear it!"

"And how'd you find us?"

"I…" The hunter hesitates. Hiccup twists his foot. "Ah, okay! I don't know, I'm just following orders! Nobody tells me that kind of stuff!" He squeaks.

"Hm." Hiccup grunts, pushing himself off the man's wrist. The hunter winces.

"How do we know he's telling the truth?" Astrid asks skeptically.

"We don't." And with one quick, swift motion Astrid kicks the man's head hard enough to nearly roll him over. His body goes limp.

"Hiccup!" Astrid watches him as he pulls a sword from the man's belt.

"What else were we gonna do, put him in prison?" He says sarcastically.

"Look, over there! I knew I heard someone yell!"

"And they've got Oslo!"

Astrid looks down the street at the sound of unfamiliar voices. A trio of hunters in dark helmets turn the corner and come running at the them. She's almost caught off guard as Hiccup tosses her the fallen hunter's bow. She catches it with a wobble.

"Get the sheath," He tells her, rising to stand at full weight, holding the stolen sword in front of him. Hissing, Toothless jumps between the two groups, head lowered towards the hunters.

For a moment, the men stop in their tracks.

"Random question, but—" Astrid kneels, quickly trying to unlatch the sheath from the limp man's back. "you ever heard of a dragon, black and yellow with three tails?"

"Of course, named him Sleuther."

"How long does the venom take to wear off?"

"Which one?" He says, eyes trained over Toothless' back, watching as the hunters regain their bearings. If they didn't already, some of them pull out their own bows and crossbows.

All at once, Toothless pounces at the approaching hunters. The men yell, falling back and shooting their arrows in the air blindly. Hiccup follows after his dragon, twisting his wrist enough to spin his sword before bringing it down on one of the hunters. The man raises his cross bow in defense, and it gets smashed to pieces.

"Which—the paralysis one." Astrid tries to work her fingers into the clasp, but the buckle is stuck. (This particular hunter really did stand to lose a few pounds, how did he squeeze this sheath over his body, it was on the loosest notch!). She glances upwards and catches sight of Toothless expand his wings, swinging them forward and sending another hunter flying.

"A—" Hiccup spinning around the hunter's sword, nearly caught between the beefy man's arms before driving the hilt of his sword in the man's gut. "—ugh, a day or so; it's potent stuff. Why?"

"Do you think you'll be able to fix Toothless' tail?"

"There's no time. But all the dragons should be long gone by now, Toothless made sure. There shouldn't be anything for a thousand-mile radius."

The third, and last hunter stays father back, weapon raised by clearly afraid to get close. Toothless hisses again.

"Aw, man, is that Oslo over there?"

"Thor almighty, I knew we shouldn't have let that idiot go off on his own!"

From down the other end of the street, at least half a dozen hunters spot them and begin running their way. The other hunter looks incredibly relieved.

Giving up on getting the sheath loose, Astrid pulls an arrow free, spinning in the direction of the new group while still on one knee. Hiccup keeps his sword raised in the other direction. She swears as the men jump out of the way of her shot.

"We can't do this all day." Astrid says. "Our dragons are out for the count, and I still plan on standing up to the screaming death."

"You're kidding me, right?"

A plasma blast whizzes by Astrid's head, singing the ground at the feet of the other group of hunters, making them scatter. Hiccup spins around when he senses the lone hunter trying to sneak up on him, his sword swinging down to dig into the wooden end of the hunters' crossbow.

Astrid watches out of the corner of her eye as the hunter tries to fire his weapon anyway, the arrow smacking against Hiccup's sword and making the both of them recoil and stagger backwards.

Astrid snatches another arrow from the downed hunter's sheath, loading and trying her best to get a clean shot on one of the advancing men. "We're too slow-going at this rate." She grits, trying to line up her shot. "I don't think the three of us will be able to stop Ryker like this."

The lone hunter tries to punch Hiccup, who ducks out of the way. The man falls over with the momentum on his swing, but still tries to grab at Hiccup's legs. Hiccup jumps out of the way, annoyance written all over his face. He kicks the man's stomach with threats to stay down.

"Okay, fine." He relents. He looks at Toothless, who seems to understand his cue and raises his head expectantly. "Do your thing, bud. If there's anyone left in the area, let them know we need their help."

Like that time all those weeks ago, Toothless raises his head to sky and roars vibrantly, the loud noise bouncing around the village and into the open sky.

"And we were already getting a lot of attention for having knocked out Oslo here…" Hiccup grumbles. He kicks at his sword, launching it into the air and snatching it up with one hand.

Astrid loads up another arrow, keeping it trained at the hunters as they dance back and forth as Toothless fires plasma blast after plasma blast in their direction. She's never been that great with a bow, even though her aim was next to none. In theory, she should be an excellent shot, but—

She swears the name of Loki as she misses again. The hunters snigger and continue to slowly make their way to her.

Maybe realizing that Astrid wasn't going be much of a help, Toothless' shot hits a man in the chest, sending him down. The dragon grunts in satisfaction.

"There, you see it?!" Another unfamiliar voice.

"Gods, it's the dragon master!"

Like Hiccup had predicted, Toothless' call for help had also attracted more than a few undesirables. Another crowd of hunters arrive from a third direction, filtering into the street from between the ruined buildings. At this rate, Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless would be boxed in.

Toothless' attention shifts, the dragon spinning to face the newcomers. He pounces at them, waving his tail wildly to whack hunters left and right. Many of them fall over, but a few more resilient ones don't fear him, and leap on the dragon. A hunter sinks his knife into Toothless back, and the dragon screams and begins to buck.

"Toothless!" Hiccup growls, distracted by the sound of his injured dragon. The other hunter takes advantage of the moment, knocking Hiccup along the side of his head with the broken end of his crossbow.

"Dammit!" Without Toothless' offense, Astrid has a bow and arrow against two unencumbered hunters. They run straight at her, but Astrid has no choice but to twist on the spot, still on one knee, and nail her arrow into the chest of the hunter who'd hit Hiccup.

The man gurgles something, his hands flying to his chest and the foreign object stuck in it, before stumbling backwards and teetering over.

Astrid locks in another arrow, praising Odin for the lucky shot, before burying another arrow into the man about to jump on her with his sword. The other one moves faster than Astrid can grab another arrow, and swipes at her in a long horizontal arc.

Astrid fall backwards onto her elbows, very nearly missing the swing of the blade and the loss of her head. While the hunter regains his balance, Astrid pushes a foot off the ground, using her other foot kicking the man in the face.

"Oof!" The hunter grunts but doesn't fall. Astrid's prepared to kick again when another person rams into him.

For a second, she thinks it might be Hiccup somehow. But a second later, Stoick comes back and offers Astrid a hand. Astrid gratefully accepts, and is pulled back onto her feet.

"Where've you been?" Astrid asks wearily. She hadn't seen him since he'd taken off to chase after Hiccup. Of course, that was before the hunter invasion and a whole bunch of other unexpected obstacles presented themselves.

"The north wall," Stoick says. "The dragons destroyed the pier, but the attackers are climbing the rocks into the village." When he sees Astrid's reaction, he almost smiles. "Don't worry, we took care of it."

Spitelout, standing faithfully behind the chief, nods in agreement. And behind him, Astrid's heart soars as she sees a lineup of other armed Vikings. Stoick must have rounded up the other capable fighters. Maybe they weren't as doomed as she thought they were.

"Waaaah!" A hunter goes flying overhead as Toothless knocks him off his back. The three of them watch the man sail through the air before looking back at Toothless. The dragon huffs indignantly.

"Stoick," Astrid wants to try and block his path, suddenly very aware of the dragon master and his dragon standing right on the street. But she's not tall or wide enough to stop him. "Hiccup's on our side, he's going to help us fight the hunters. And he's going to help me stop the— "

But Stoick pushes past her. Spitelout and the others don't look like allies anymore, and it scares her. They were still here for Hiccup. It was still about Hiccup, even now.