I do not own the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.

This story takes place sometime during the second half of season three, so you can expect some spoilers for that if you haven't seen it yet.

Struck Down

Arms folded under her head, Ruffnut basked in the warmth of the sun, the long blades of grass tickling her cheeks. Though her helmet covered her eyes, she could hear her brother, somewhere near the creek, playing with his pet chicken.

"What a great day to do nothing," she said with a yawn.

"You guys do nothing every day. I don't see what the weather has to do with it."

The familiar, irritated voice reached Ruffnut's ears and she let out a grunt of dismay. Reluctantly sitting up, she pushed back her helmet to get a full view of Astrid, who stood over her with her arms crossed. "Are you following us?" she asked in accusation.

Astrid snorted. "Please. My time is worth much more than that."

"In that case, you can keep on moving and we'll do…well, nothing," spoke Tuffnut, sauntering over with his chicken sitting on his shoulder.

"I don't know how many times we have to have this conversation before it gets through your thick heads, but we have chores and work to do," said Astrid sharply. "If I'm remembering correctly, you two were charged with restocking the fish supply for the dragons."

Tuffnut wrinkled his nose. "Ugh. You and your memory."

"Move!" commanded Astrid, pointing in the direction of the stables. "And I mean it. No slacking off."

"Fine, slave driver," harrumphed Ruffnut, climbing to her feet and brushing strands of grass from her clothes. "Don't have a cow. We'll get your fish."

Nodding, Astrid watched the two depart before letting out a Deadly Nadder dragon call. Stormfly soon appeared and landed next to her, chirping happily. Astrid stroked her muzzle before climbing on. "Maybe today's the day they'll actually do what they're told," she spoke aloud as they took off into the air, having their own work to complete.

The twins, after snagging a fishing net from the supply hut, made it to the stables to see Barf and Belch still sleeping. "Smart dragon," said Ruffnut wistfully.

"If we have to suffer, then so do they," declared Tuffnut. His chicken hopped off of his shoulder and scuttled somewhere as the boy strode over and rapped Belch on the top of his head. "Yo, wake up. Apparently we have stuff to do."

"C'mon, Barf," said Ruffnut, lightly nudging her dragon's head with her foot. "If we don't get it done soon Miss Second-in-Command is probably going to chop off our heads and hang them up in the clubhouse."

Tuffnut wrinkled his nose. "That'll completely ruin the décor."

After a few more insistent prods, the Hideous Zippleback awoke. Rumbling in annoyance, Barf let out a small cloud of gas to show his displeasure at being disturbed from a fitful slumber. Coughing, Tuffnut waved away the foul-smelling fumes. "Hey, we're not exactly happy about this either," he chided. "So we're gonna be unhappy together."

Snorting softly, Barf and Belch climbed to their feet and lowered their necks so their humans could get on. When they were settled, the Zippleback flew outside into the warm afternoon air, the sun shining brightly in the crystal blue sky.

Flying directly over the water, Barf and Belch lowered the net below the surface. Tuffnut glanced at the rippling blue water. "So…how long is this going to take?"

"Probably a while if you keep talking. You're gonna scare them away."

Tuffnut glared. "If anything is going to scare them away, it's your stench."

"Hey, the fishy smell is my stench," retorted Ruffnut. "So if anything, I'm gonna attract fish."

"Good for you," sneered Tuffnut. "Maybe you'll find a fish-faced boyfriend-ow!" He rubbed his shoulder, where his sister had landed a solid punch. "Bride of Grendel."

"Jerk," returned Ruffnut with a scowl. "Now shut up and wait for the fish."

It was five minutes into their painfully boring fishing expedition when Smidvarg suddenly flew up to them, clearly agitated. Ruffnut cast a brief glance around the area for the other Night Terrors, but it seemed Smidvarg was alone, which in itself was rather odd.

"What's with you?" she asked.

With an insistent growl, Smidvarg flew off a short distance and stopped, glancing back to see if the twins would follow.

"Dunno what this is about, but I'll take it over this stupid fishing!" declared Tuffnut. "Let's follow that Night Terror!"

Barf and Belch followed after Smidvarg, keeping close to the water. After a short while of flying Smidvarg suddenly stopped, and it was clear why he was so concerned. A fleet of ships was just on the horizon, rapidly closing in on Dragon's Edge, the Dragon Hunter insignia painted proudly on the sails.

"Don't those guys ever give up?" whined Tuffnut.

"Well, this definitely beats fishing," said Ruffnut. "Drop the net, guys, and let's get out of here before they see us."

With a soft growl at the enemy ships, the Zippleback obeyed and discarded the empty fishing net. With Smidvarg by their side they hurried back to Dragon's Edge and burst into the clubhouse, where Hiccup was tinkering with the Dragon Eye. Toothless jolted at the harsh noise, but immediately calmed when he realized it was just the twins and Barf and Belch.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?" snapped Hiccup, placing a hand over his pounding heart.

"Hey, we don't have time to be 'polite'," said Ruffnut, dropping from Barf's head. "Not when there are Dragon Hunters approaching."

Jumping to his feet, Hiccup instantly went serious. "How far out?"

"Probably about ten minutes," answered Tuffnut. "Hopefully more. Most likely less."

"They're persistent, I'll give them that," grumbled Hiccup, mind whirling as he started to develop a plan. He hurried over to the horn situated outside of the clubhouse and gave a short warning blast. It wasn't long before the other dragon riders gathered at the clubhouse with their dragons.

"What is it now?" asked Snotlout warily.

"Dragon Hunters," said Hiccup grimly. "The twins spotted them when they were doing their fishing."

"Are you sure it was the Dragon Hunters?" asked Fishlegs dubiously. "Made it was just Trader Johann."

Ruffnut set her hands on her hips. "Only if Johann's ship suddenly multiplied by a dozen."

"Great," said Astrid flatly. "So what do we do?"

"Snotlout and I will get Toothless and Hookfang suited with the armour," decided Hiccup. "We'll take care of the frontal assault, taking out as many ships as we can. You," he said, pointing at Astrid and the twins, "can focus on taking out the catapults and marksmen from the air. Try to stay out of range. The last thing we need is for one of your dragons to be hit by the dragon-root laced arrow."

"Got it." Astrid gave a firm nod.

"Here we go," grumbled Snotlout. "Come on, Hookfang."

As Hookfang and Toothless went to get armoured up, the others flew to the water, where they could see the ships on the horizon, fast approaching. Fishlegs eyed them nervously. "I hope those two get back soon. I don't think it would be good if they reached Dragon's Edge."

"At least we'd have homeland advantage that way," spoke Astrid.

"Sure, if we had our catapults and other defenses prepared. But we kinda got surprised by this attack."

"True," conceded Astrid, eyes locked on the enemy ships. "But either way, they're going down. Just like they always do."

"What a beautiful day for destruction!" cheered Tuffnut.

Ruffnut glanced up at the sky. Once blue, it was now starting to grey as storm clouds formed above them. "It was a beautiful day for destruction," she corrected. "Now it's just a sucky day for destruction."

"Great," grumbled Fishlegs. "Just what we need, a storm."

A few minutes later Hookfang and Toothless joined them, covered with Gronkle Iron armour. "Alright gang, we need to chase them off," instructed Hiccup. "Snotlout, Fishlegs and I will down as many ships as we can while the rest of you focus on distracting and taking out the marksmen and catapults from higher in the air. We can't let them take Dragon's Edge."

"So it's us against a fleet," said Snotlout dryly. "A normal fight."

"Hey, they lost their one major factor-the element of surprise," countered Astrid. "They probably attacked in the afternoon because we wouldn't be as on guard as we are during the night. Thanks to the twins actually doing their work for once, we didn't get caught off-guard."

Ruffnut smirked. "You're welcome."

"Let's go guys, and watch your backs!" commanded Hiccup.

The dragons took to the air, with Hiccup and Toothless in the lead. Racing low against the water the Night Fury shot past the ships, creating waves that knocked them from side to side. Flanking the pair, Hookfang and Meatlug began firing on the ships. Higher in the air Stormfly used her spikes and Barf and Belch used their explosions to confuse and disarm the enemy below.

Standing on the head ship, Ryker glowered at the dragons, not flinching as a fire blast from Hookfang missed him by inches. "They're stubborn brats, I'll give them that."

"So much for a surprise attack," groused Dagur.

"Though the element of surprise would have been a handy advantage, we do not need it," returned Ryker. "I much prefer the straight-forward approach, anyway." Turning his head slightly, he boomed, "Shoot them down!"

"Like we haven't tried that before," muttered Dagur lowly.

Heather, keeping her expression a cool mask, watched intently as her friends fought the Dragon Hunter fleet back. Arrows rained into the air, along with flaming rocks and bolas. The assault was almost overwhelming and she could see the others struggling to take down the ships.

Sorry, guys, she thought regretfully. I had as little knowledge of this attack as you did. I couldn't warn Astrid in time. At least you found out before we reached the mainland.

She wished she could be up there on Windshear to help them in some sort of capacity. But her dragon was currently laid up in her pen, sick with some sort of cold, leaving Heather to stand stiffly on deck with her brother and watch the battle unfold before her.

"Hookfang, flame up!" ordered Snotlout.

His Monstrous Nightmare obeyed. His dragon engulfed with flames, Snotlout zeroed in on the nearest ship. "Land there!"

Hookfang dropped down onto the deck of the ship, the wooden structure immediately lighting on fire. Hunters swarmed towards them and Hookfang used his tail to swipe them out of the way, some falling into the water.

"Alright!" cheered Snotlout. "Snotfang rules!"

Circling above the remaining ships, Astrid instructed Stormfly to fire some spine shots. A soft rumbling came from overhead and the blonde glanced up. She cursed softly at the blue-white flashes that came from the thick grey clouds.

"Watch yourselves!" she called to the twins. "We've got a lightning storm on our hands!"

Just as the words left her mouth a bolt of lightning struck, causing Stormfly and Barf and Belch to startle and fly lower from the electric storm. Astrid hastily ducked as a volley of arrows came towards them, relentless now they were within the line of fire.

"Barf, gas!" instructed Ruffnut, pointing towards where the arrows were raining towards Astrid and Stormfly.

Green gas flooded the air between the two and the ships. Belch ignited the gas and the explosion obliterated the remaining arrows and caused the marksmen below to duck for cover as the flames reached dangerously close.

"Are you guys okay?" called Hiccup in concern.

"Fine," returned Astrid. She turned to the twins and said, "Okay, here's what we're going to do. We'll get down low and-"

Ruffnut did not hear the rest of what Astrid said, for her eyes suddenly locked on the lone arrow sailing through the lingering black smoke of Barf and Belch's explosion, on a direct path for Astrid's head, seconds away from impact.

"Astrid! Look out!"

Time seemed to slow down as Ruffnut jumped from her place on Barf's head, sailing over Astrid and using her body as a shield. The arrow, instead of gruesomely spearing through Astrid's head, impaled Ruffnut's stomach.

"Ruffnut!" screamed Tuffnut, eyes filled with terror as his sister fell limply towards the water below.

Astrid was frozen, staring at the drops of blood that rained down after her female companion. Stormfly flew after Ruffnut and gently snagged her with her claws. Seeing one of their own fallen, Barf and Belch let out a roar that echoed over the water, filled with rage.

"I got her!" shouted Snotlout, having been alerted by Ruffnut's previous shout of warning. He reached up and took Ruffnut from Stormfly's grip, his hands immediately getting coated with the blood that seeped from Ruffnut's wound. "Ruffnut," he asked anxiously, careful not to jostle the arrow. "Ruffnut!"

"Get her to Berk!" hollered Hiccup, face white as a ghost. "Astrid, do something about the blood flow!"

Tuffnut could dimly hear the words his friends were exchanging. But his eyes were locked on Ryker, who stood on the helm of his ship, bow still held in aiming position. There was a satisfied smile on his face, one that Tuffnut wanted to beat off.

Barf and Belch were already speeding for the ship, ready to obliterate the fleet that injured their human. Another bout of arrows came their way and Toothless suddenly appeared in front of them, deflecting the shots with his armour.

"Tuffnut, we need to go, now!" commanded Hiccup.

The male Thorston dug his nails into Belch's scales, trembling with emotion. "He did it," he croaked, hardly able to talk over his mounting fury and terror. "I'm gonna kill him-"

Hiccup reached out and gripped Tuffnut's shoulders. "We will deal with Ryker later," he said firmly. "I promise. But we need to get to Berk and help your sister. We need to get out of here."

Breathing heavily, Tuffnut managed to nod. He took Hiccup's extended hand and allowed himself to be pulled onto the back of Toothless. "Come on, guys," he said tonelessly to Barf and Belch. "We'll get these half-trolls later."

With a vicious snort towards the Hunters, Barf and Belch immediately flew off to reach the critically injured Ruffnut, who was being held by Snotlout, the rest of the riders already well off in the distance. Toothless roared threateningly at the lingering ships, a promise to return and punish those who hurt his friend.

Before the Night Fury sped off to catch up to the others, Tuffnut caught Ryker's eye. Lifting his finger, he slowly slid it across his threat, not breaking eye-contact with the stoic Dragon Hunter leader.

If my sister dies, I'm coming back for you Ryker, and if I have to sacrifice my own life in order to take yours, then so be it.