The only thing I have to say about this chapter is I'm glad I finally got it out of my way. This one was such a pain in the ass to write and I don't even know why. Sorry for the long wait (blame college) but... yeah, I updated and I'm not dropping the story for anything so... I'll get it done when time allows it. I hope you like this one, nonetheless.

Thank you all for putting up with all of my shit for as long as you have with this fic. You are all the most patient people I've ever seen... next to the Sherlock fandom.

Hiccup was in shock.

She could hardly register what had happened as the events replayed in her mind over and over again. She was trying to calm the raging Typhoomerang and it seemed to be working. But then, in a flash, everything took a turn for the worst. The dragon was getting ready to fire at her and Hiccup started to scramble up to her feet to get away from the blast. But then, suddenly, Dagur had jumped out of nowhere and started attacking the dragon, shouting out and firing arrow after arrow at it. She called out for Dagur to stop but it seemed as though every one of his senses were turned off… except his sense to kill. The battle happened so quickly that it was hard for Hiccup to make out what had happened, but what she did know was that now the Typhoomerang was dead on the beach with arrows jutting out of its neck and head.

What brought her out of her dazed state was Dagur's adrenaline-filled kiss and one of his rough hands reaching the small of her back and pulling her up closer to him.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! What in the name of Thor was going on?! What was he doing?! What did he think he was doing?!

Hiccup did her best to yell through the kiss but, when he didn't react to it, she tore her mouth from his and kneed him in the stomach "What are you doing?! Get off me!"

Her assault seemed to barely faze Dagur. He just looked down at her, dark green eyes hazed over with a lust-filled hunger. He released her, allowing her to fall back against the sand, but he didn't get off of her. He just stared at her, panting heavily and face trying to conceal rage "How come?" His voice was deeper than usual… huskier "You're safe now, Hiccup."

"I was fine!" She yelled back, tears stinging her eyes.

"Shh…" One of his hands cupped her face, thumb rubbing under her eye and practically purring as he spoke to her "I told you I'd protect you."

"I didn't need you to protect me!" Hiccup pounded on his chest with her fists and it might as well have been a rock. Dagur wasn't moving, that was for sure. Okay, now this was just getting ridiculous.

"Come on," Aaannd he was carrying on like he didn't hear her again "let's go back to the village, show off that beautiful kill of ours. Then we'll have aa~ll the time in the world."

"That's it!" She slid out from under him and ran over to the Typhoomerang's body, kneeling in the blood-stained sand to survey the damage that the raging Berserker had done to the poor thing. He'd ripped her head clean off and lodged arrows in her skull. There was no doubt in her mind that he was going to take the head back as a trophy of some sort; she'd seen other mounted dragon heads in the Great Hall when she visited it.

And that was when she let her tears start to fall. She could have saved this dragon… she could have spared her from this merciless death… if only Dagur had trusted her like she had grown to trust him "Do you not care about what you did to her?!"

A hand found a place on her back, rubbing gently in an effort to soothe her "Hiccup, don't you see how great this is? Now my people are safe because you led me right to the dragon! For the rest of your stay on Berserk, you can relax!" He started to stroke her hair "After I mount this beast's head on the wall, I'll make you a coat with its hide; you'll love it." … Okay, maybe her hitting him pulled him out of it a bit…?

He kissed her temple and that's when she snapped. She shoved him away and ran from the dragon's body, over to the spot in the sand that the Typhoomerang eggs were buried. As she uncovered them, she could hear Dagur's footsteps behind her. He was clearly still trying to appease her, or else he would be skinning the body right now or something.

Hiccup stopped digging when the eggs were visible and counted them. Four… there were four. Four dragons were without a mother to take care of them because of her. No… because of Dagur. If he hadn't intervened, their mother would still be alive. She would be able to raise her hatchlings herself instead of leaving them on the beach to hatch alone, prone to predators and more Berserker hunters… or to just die before they even got the chance to get that far.

Then Hiccup's sorrow flashed back to anger. She glared over her shoulder at Dagur as she turned, never breaking her stare. He was right behind her, looking down at her almost as angrily as she was at him "You know what I'd love, Dagur? What would really make me happy?" She was growling now and it felt like something as powerful as a dragon's fire was brewing inside of her.

All the while, Dagur's expression remained unchanged. Brows set in a straight line and mouth pressing into the slightest frown. His eyes were dark and his nostrils flared a bit with each breath he took.

"What I want" she continued "is for you to leave me alone. I may be stuck here for the winter, but I bet that's what you wanted, right? You didn't need me to handle that dragon. But I figured coming here would be better than freezing my ass off on Outcast Island!" Tears started to well up in her eyes again as she clenched her fists "And I actually thought I could trust you… after everything you've done to me, I thought maybe, just maybe, there was more to you than just some crazy killing machine!"

"Hiccup…"

"Don't even try to tell me otherwise! Don't talk to me! Just… get out of my sight!"

Then she ran away. She didn't know where she was going, but she just ran. Through the brush and weaving between trees. She couldn't be near Dagur right now. She couldn't even look at him. She needed to be alone, to cool her head before she did anything else. She'd go back for the eggs later, take care of them once she'd collected herself enough to think rationally again. But, for now, she just wanted to hide.

Dagur's first instinct was to follow. But her words came back to him, replaying like a ringing in his ears. All of her protests, her slaps, and attempts to escape him just then. She rarely raised her voice since they had made their little truce on Outcast Island. But in that moment she was screaming at him, almost screeching as tears rolled down her face. He just… didn't understand what had made her so emotional. That thing was threatening her, trying to kill her. What was he supposed to do; let it cook her as he just sat back and watched?! She should have been happy that he saved her life, not yelling at him for killing the dragon!

He was finally starting to think that he could understand her. He finally thought that he and Hiccup would become something more… satisfying. Something more solid, more intimate. The past week or so had been near perfect between them. Mutual kindness and moments that left him wanting more. Hell, even his sister was helping him and she barely even knew Hiccup! Something had to be going right if she decided to help, right? Even if it was in her own, oh so subtle kind of way…

…And then the answer slapped him in the face and made him feel stupid. Hiccup actually cared about that dragon. Of course, duh! She would be nothing but mad about the dragon. He should have known that.

But then what happened? He just… lost control when he saw that dragon attack her. It was instinct or tunnel vision or something, had to be. The only thing that mattered was protecting Hiccup. But what he wound up doing was probably the opposite for all he knew. Hiccup didn't know Berserk's woods like he and Erika did. She'd never been on the island before he brought her here. She couldn't possibly have covered the whole island on her excursion to find that Typhoomerang in the first place. But… maybe she went back to the village? Or she could have ran off elsewhere in an effort to avoid him. That seemed like a Hiccup thing to do.

Ugh, whatever. Hiccup couldn't get far without someone noticing her. If she wasn't back in the village, he could always go back out and look for her. The village needed to know the dragon was dead anyway. And he might as well ask for Erika's input too… maybe she knew how he could get back on Hiccup's good side…

"What in Odin's name did you do?!" Erika interrogated her brother as he hauled the Typhoomerang's head over his shoulder, making his way towards the Mead Hall to show his people that the threat was gone.

"I followed her. It tried to kill her. So I killed it." Dagur curtly replied.

"And where is Hiccup now?" She questioned.

"Hell if I know." The older sibling scoffed "Besides, everyone should at least know they're not gonna get roasted any time soon."

"So you're not at all concerned for her being down there alone?"

"I didn't say that!" Dagur snapped back.

"Then what are you saying?" Erika retorted.

The red head stopped and growled before pivoting to face his sister "I don't know what to do!" When she didn't say anything in response, he continued, voice rising with every word "She's pissed, okay, I get that! What am I supposed to do about it?! She pushed me away, didn't want anything to do with me!"

Erika huffed, unfazed by her brother's outburst "I think she had every right to say that, since she clearly didn't want to kill the dragon."

"Maybe if she told me that; why didn't she tell me that?!"

"I don't know-"

"ERIKA, HELP ME OUT HERE!" He roared.

The two were locked in a stare-down for a moment, Dagur practically snarling at her through gritted teeth as Erika just looked him over. She took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders "Okay, okay, fine." She held her hands up, almost in surrender. Immediately, Dagur's expression started to soften, but his anger was still prevalent "I think I know something you can do to smooth this over a bit, just calm down a bit…"

Erika took another deep breath in and waited for Dagur to follow her lead. When he did, she counted to ten and the two exhaled in unison. They repeated the process a few more times until Dagur was visibly calmer. Only then did Erika smile and give him her advice.

"Do something nice for her." Erika suggested "I know that's not really your style, but that's the quickest way she'll come around. Girls – no, people in general – like that."

Her brother thought it over before questioning "Like what?"

"I don't know. I mean, you would know her better than me. But it has to mean something to her. It can't be just taking her sightseeing or, say, giving her that dragon's head." She tilted her head towards the prize slung over Dagur's shoulder for emphasis "You need to think about her and what would make her happiest right now."

Dagur furrowed his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side "And… that'll work?"

"I'm not saying that it's foolproof or anything," Erika explained "But I think that's going to be the best way to get her to come around."

The older sibling nodded and gave his sister a one-armed hug "Thanks."

She hugged him back "Don't mention it."

"Come on," He released her and continued walking "the village needs to be taken care of first."

"Okay, I can agree with you on that one." She reasoned "But it's not like we haven't been through worse."

"Didn't you always sleep better when Dad told us a threat was gone?"

"Yeah…"

The pair trekked on in a comfortable silence the rest of the way to the Mead Hall, Dagur smirking as they walked past villagers that noticed the dragon head and gawked at it, ever the show-off. Once they made it to their destination, the chief was almost instantly noticed and barraged about his parcel. At first, he just ignored them and threw the head on the table.

"Sir," Vorg ran up to the chief "what kind of dragon is that? Is it the one that's been attacking us?"

Instantly, other Berserkers around them perked up even more and began to surround the trio, all shouting the same questions out of anger, or perhaps desperation. When it began to get claustrophobic within the hall, Dagur climbed on top of the table and shouted "ATTENTION!"

The room silenced and all eyes were on him. "Good. Now then," He held the dragon head above his head proudly "this, my brothers and sisters, is the head of the beast that has been plaguing us!" They applauded and Dagur let them have their moment before continuing "This deed was done with the help of Berk's own Hiccup the Dragon Conqueror! While she distracted it, I leapt into action, ending our hardship once and for all!"

Another round of applause and Dagur lowered the head. He stared down at it blankly as he spoke "However, Hiccup is… unsatisfied with this outcome." He exhaled "She wishes that it didn't have to come to this," he looked back up at his people "but a chief protects their own, no matter the cost."

He stepped off of the table, leaving the head resting on its surface, and the villagers made a path for him as he strode on, hands entwined behind his back "The dragon's carcass is on the beach where we cancelled our dock project. I'm asking a group of men to go down there and claim it before the meat rots entirely. Harvest the hide and clean the bones for our use and put the meat in storage."

He stopped and scanned the crowd, noticing a few men already discussing amongst themselves who would make the trip down to claim the dragon's body. Then, his eyes fell upon his little sister, arms crossed and looking at him impatiently. Their eyes locked and he stopped in his tracks, like he was trying to communicate with her mentally. He knew what she'd told him just a little bit ago, "Do something nice for her." But what was that, exactly? What could he do if the dragon was dead? It wasn't like he could bring it back- … wait a minute. That was it!

Dagur shook off his trace and carried on "There's also a nest of dragon eggs not very far from the body. I want them brought back and placed in my temporary quarters unharmed, as a favor to Hiccup. Am I clear?"

He heard a few male voices beckon "Yes, sir!" He assumed they must have belonged to the party that would be going.

"Excellent." The chief grinned "Oh, and another thing. Someone mount that head for me." He gestured back to the table "Whether Hiccup likes it or not, it's going on The Wall."

"Right away, Chief!" A woman's voice replied "Would you like it to be hung there as well or will you care to place it yourself?"

"Put it between my first Gronckle head and the Deadly Nadder from Dragon Island." Dagur elaborated "I have other business to attend to tonight, unfortunately."

By the time Hiccup had cooled off enough to think coherently again, she had found herself thoroughly lost in the wilds of tropical Berserk. Surrounded by the impossibly large, thick trunks of the trees that supported the suspended village above, she could see no recognizable landmarks or anything remotely resembling a pathway. Yep, she was definitely lost.

Hiccup wandered back the way she came, re-tracing her steps as well as she could considering her once clouded judgment. The sands of the beach may have been overtaken by dirt and greenery, but once she found her way back to it, it would be simple enough to recognize something that could lead her back to the village above the tree canopy.

As she passed by the giant trees, she thought that she could occasionally hear scratching, yelling, or agonizing shouts from inside of them. At first, she presumed that she was going crazy. But then she pressed her hand to a tree trunk that was emitting one of those strangely human sounds. She could feel the slightest vibration resonate under her fingers, as if the person making those noises was trapped inside the tree. And then Hiccup remembered a comment that Dagur had made about some of the trees on Berserk. During his tour of the village, he mentioned that a number of the trees were hollowed out and used as jail cells to host prisoners. Until then, she was convinced that it was just a rumor. But feeling and hearing those sobs through the tree's bark, imagining what the person inside must be feeling if their sentence was recent, it took away all of Hiccup's doubt. Berserk was a much more brutal place than Berk; that was for damn sure now.

When she managed to pull her hand away from the tree and try to forget hearing those trapped souls inside the trees, Hiccup went on her way until she could see a small patch of blue from between the foliage. She advanced towards it with increasing speed as the sight became more prominent to her, plants and thick brush being left behind in favor of the sand and waves that she had sought after. Hiccup's running came to a halt halfway between the woods and the shoreline and she looked both ways down the stretch of sand before her. She didn't see any real markers to tell her where the village was yet, but she did know which way would be more likely to being her there.

Hiccup turned right, continuing to backtrack and hoping that she would come across one of the lifters soon. She'd gone almost all day without food because she didn't want to chance trying some foreign berries off of some bushes. Her stomach was rumbling and she could really go for a good meal. But it would have to wait; she had to get those dragon eggs out of the sand. She couldn't just leave them there and hope for the best, she had to take them and raise them herself if she had to! Maybe once those Typhoomerangs grew enough, they could fly her back home. Then she wouldn't be stuck with Dagur any longer than she had to be… again. Ugh, she and him were just a mess, weren't they?

The Hooligan wasn't sure of how long she'd been walking down the beach by herself, but when she finally saw the one grim marker that would inform her of where she was, she noticed that it was far from alone.

A group of six Berserkers were on the spot of beach where Dagur had killed the Typhoomerang. And the dragon's body was no longer how Hiccup had left it earlier. Its wings had been chopped off and its talons and claws removed. Two men were skinning the body while three others were packing what they'd already salvaged into wooden crates. And the sixth man was kneeling in the sand, another crate by his side. He was plucking up the eggs one by one and placing them inside the box, closing it and putting a lock on it once all four were inside.

Hiccup couldn't move. She was too late. She knew what Dagur wanted with the talons, the hide, and the meat… and that could only mean that the eggs shared a similar fate, at the complete mercy of Berserk's need for food and supplies. It wasn't exactly immoral by any means, but the idea still irked her. That was what yaks, sheep, and chickens were for, for Thor's sake! Food, milk, and clothing. And most of the time it didn't require killing the animals! She could understand putting the mother's body to good use, not just letting her rot on the beach, but… why the eggs too? What would they do with four little dragon eggs, make someone a single breakfast? No… that couldn't be it… but then again she did know Dagur liked dragon meat. What would stop him from eating the eggs as well? No, she wouldn't let the eggs meet that fate!

"Hey!" She shouted and the Berserkers all looked her way "Leave those eggs alone!"

The man with the box containing the eggs hoisted it into his arms and stood "Sorry, Dragon Conqueror. We have orders from Dagur to being these eggs back to him."

"What's he gonna do with them?!"

"Don't know." One of the men skinning the dragon grunted as he but more hide off "All he said was he wanted them unharmed and brought to him."

Unharmed? Probably more like undamaged.

"Would you like an escort back to the village, Dragon Conqueror?" The man with the eggs asked "Then, you can ask Dagur about these eggs yourself."

Hiccup's expression hardened "With pleasure."

The two of them made their way to the closest lifter and were brought back up to the village within minutes. From there, the soldier led Hiccup back to the little huts where she, Dagur, and Erika were staying and put the box of eggs down in the hut that she and Dagur had shared the night before. He handed her the key to the box and then left without a word.

Hiccup didn't waste any more time and opened the box back up, looking over each egg for any sign of injury. When she found none, she started scooping them up one by one to check their undersides for the same thing. Dspite a few scratches, they were unharmed and, for lack of a better place to put them, she left them inside of the box.

"What did he wanna do with you guys?" She wondered aloud "At least you'll be safe now. I won't let him hurt you."

Hiccup heard something hit wood and she turned to see SkyEyes sitting on the windowsill with a fish tail sticking out of his mouth. He gulped it down before scurrying over to his master and climbing to his perch on her shoulders. The Terrible Terror stared into the box curiously and leaned closer to further inspect its contents. He then climbed off of Hiccup and situated himself inside the box to lay on top of the eggs, even though they were almost the same size as he was.

Hiccup giggled at the sight "Yep, you'll definitely be safe now little guys."

It was silent for a little while after that, just her staring at SkyEyes and the dragon eggs and soaking in the only good moment that had happened all day. In that moment, she let her mind fall off of the bad and focus on the good. She was unharmed, the eggs were safe, Berserk was free of the dragon's rage (even if it wasn't in the way she'd hoped), and now she could look forward to seeing four hatchlings emerge from those shells in the near future. The only thing left was-

"Hiccup…?" Speak of the devil.

The Hooligan looked over her shoulder at the Berserker chief standing in the doorway, looking confused and unsure yet relieved at the same time. He had a faint smile on his face that came across as apologetic, but she searched the rest of his face for any conflicting signs. She could see uncertainty in his raised brows, but nothing more. It was almost like he wasn't sure what he was doing when, really, it seemed to her like he was doing nothing out of the ordinary.

But Hiccup's expression was far less inviting. Her anger came back when she saw him and she questioned him with a bite in her voice "What were you going to do with these eggs? Why'd you tell your men to pack them up and take them up here?"

Dagur's smile faded and he quickly looked to the floor. A second later, his focus was back on her "Well… because you didn't want them left there, right?"

The brunette looked at him quizzically, eyebrows knitting together and mouth becoming a small flat line "Huh?"

"They were that dragon's, right?" He went on, taking a cautious step towards her "That was part of why you were upset...?" She merely nodded in response "I know you didn't want me to follow you… but you've… grown on me and… I didn't want you to hate me again." He gulped "I'm sorry, Hiccup… I can't take back my kill but… I thought you'd like having the eggs."

Hiccup smiled up at him "I would."