EXPLANATION: I wanted to wait until the sequel came out before continuing. I saw it three times withing the opening week. Twice on opening day! lol. And oh boy! New characters! I then had to incorporate these new characters (*cough* Hiccup's mom *cough*) in this story somehow. I then decided a grace period would be best to avoid spoilers, but I only planned for about a month after the movie was released on DVD (and digitally, Blu-Ray, 3-D, whatever else they have now), so everyone could have access to it. Obviously...I didn't. There were so many new stories to read!

So, with several and multiple apologies, the next chapter. (Finally!)

Slowly, Astrid's cheeks dried off, and so she sat up and stared off into the sky. With the other woman. Astrid sighed to herself, the woman even said she was looking for her own daughter. So why did she overreact so much?

Oh, right, she was pregnant again. And now Hiccup was gone again.

Tears just started to leak from her eyes again, when she felt the boat lurch to the side suddenly, before correcting itself. Astrid was not as lucky, and fell to the floor. She gripped the side just as the boat lurched again, and the boat flipped over.

Astrid was thrown underwater, and had just started to swim up when she froze. She was surrounded by water dragons, dragons she hadn't seen before, and they were all staring at her. She screamed as one charged forward, releasing her oxygen, only to breathe in more when the dragon brought her to the surface.

She looked around in confusion, and realized that she was sitting on the back of the dragon, who was swimming rapidly away from the boat. As she looked behind her, she noticed the other dragons were following behind, so escape was not an option. She gripped on to the dragon beneath her, who tensed momentarily, before relaxing once realizing it was not being attacked.

Eventually, a giant glacier-like thing appeared in the distance, and it looked as though that would be her destination. Within five minutes, this hypothesis was confirmed, and she was ungraciously thrown off as the dragon jumped over a section of land, before landing in the water on the other side. Astrid laid on the ground, trying to see where she was, but all she saw was the darkness, and the sound of dragons gathering around her. She tried not to scream when all the dragons opened their mouths, illuminating the cave, and revealing the menacing masked person slowly approaching her.

Where are the pagebreaks on this thing?

Sally decided that she no longer liked Antionette. Yes, she was beautiful, and she did have a lovely singing voice, but she was mean. Apparently, not all girls were nice, but there wasn't any guys here she liked too much either. Except for the man with the knives, but he only came around about once a month.

Her eyes lit up when she realized that today was the day he was coming. Sure enough, she felt the ship being knocked into as the amateur crew anchored right next to the pirate ship. After the pirates gave the small boats the dragons, they would eat and drink together, and the man with the knives would come talk to her and teach her how to defend herself against the dragons. She grew excited as the pirates who guarded her ran upstairs to greet the newcomers.

She jumped when the yelling started.

"We had a deal! You get us dragons, we give you weapons! Drago is not going to like this at all, and it'll be my head!"

She knew that voice! That was the man with the knives. All the pirates were upstairs, and the door was slightly open. She didn't think twice as she ran to go say hi to her friend, as Antionette yelled at her in her weird language.

"I've never missed a single order! And I've seen Drago gut those who do!"

Those words halted her progress towards him, and instead Sally cautiously peered out through the opening.

"We had the dragons, but they escaped! We'll get some more by tomorrow if you give us the weapons today!"

"I need to see Drago tomorrow! If you think-" he stopped as he saw the familiar little girl's face peek out through the door. His expression softened slightly before a dangerous look appeared on his face again as he looked at the pirate. "The girl. Give us the girl and you can have your weapons, and we can continue the deal normally next month."

"What do you think you're doing?" one of the man's men asked him.

"Just trust me. The girl," he demanded of the pirate again.

"That girl is leverage for something personal, see, and-"

"That girl, or the weapons will be used on you, instead of given to you."

The pirate sighed. "Fine, just don't give her to the Night Tamer, and we should be fine." He stuck out his hand.

"Not a problem, Captain," he responded as he shook the pirate's hand. The man then walked over and picked up Sally before walking over to his own ship. "How would you like to learn a new trick with a new knife?" he asked her. She nodded eagerly as the man laughed lightly. "By the way, the name's Eret, son of Eret. What's yours?"

"Sally."

"What a pretty name! Well then, Sally. You're going to guard the ship while the rest of us go hunt some dragons, okay?"

Sally nodded an affirmative, feeling proud of her new responsibilities.

"Then we'll go meet Drago...he might not be too happy at first, but I'm the son of Eret! He should go easy on me. And with you training at such a young age already, I'm sure you'll grow into an amazing dragon trapper one day. Drago can't possibly be too mad at that."

Sally beamed.

Found the pagebreaks.

With no dragons found that day, Drago could be very mad. He demanded to see the little girl immediately after Eret's punishment. With great pain, Eret led Drago to the ship, clutching his newest scar in agony.

Sally jerked up when the large man entered the room, terrified at his appearance.

"What makes you think...that this little girl can be of use to me?"

Eret fumbled for an answer, as tears started to well up in Sally's eyes.

"Uh...the pirates mentioned that she should not, under any circumstances, be handed over to the Night Tamer," he tried.

Drago's eyebrows shot up in interest. "The great Dragon Master? How is she so important to him?" He circled her trembling form, as though searching for an answer. "Very well. Now be grateful all you got out of this is that scar, boy. What is your name, little girl?"

"Sally," she said lightly.

Drago patted her head at that. "Sal-ly, follow me."

Timidly, she stood up and followed him to an arena of some sort. "Some of my more...capable trappers have brought in a new shipment. We'll start small for today," he explained as he led them inside.

Sally trembled at the sound of several angry dragons. Drago eventually led her to a hallway, where dragons in cages shrieked in defiance. He chuckled slightly at the fearful look in her eyes. Eventually, they reached a cage where a single terrible terror was chained, and the cage door was opened. The dragon perked at the sound, before launching a small blast at the newcomers. Drago's eyes lit up with amusement as Sally immediately ducked, dodging the blast, and ran over, holding his mouth shut and pinning the small dragon to the ground. The dragon squirmed for a bit, before going limp in defeat, sighing smoke out of its nose. Slowly, she let go, and the dragon merely stared at her dejectedly.

"Impressive. You have...such a way with the beasts. Who taught you this?"

"Grandpa Stoick."

Drago's eyes shot up once more, before throwing his head back and laughing, patting the girl on the shoulder roughly, causing her to wince. "I see now. Come, you have much to learn, Sally."

Shorter chapter, yes, but hey! An update! For all my long-time readers who probably hate me, and for the newer readers as well, who probably doesn't hate me too much because they didn't have to wait as long. You guys are lucky, though, compared to the readers of my other stories...but this one's the priority, believe it or not.

Expect another update much sooner than this one took! Again, so sorry for the long wait. Next Chapter has Hiccup and Maria's POV, Stoick's POV, and finishing off with the revelation of the masked person to Astrid (you guys probably guessed who it is already, let's be honest.)