Chapter 1

"I want to know what's going on. No one just gets as good as you do, especially you." Astrid said stalking toward me. "Start talking, are you training with someone?"

"Training, no I uh…"

"It better not involve this." She said gripping my flight vest.

"I know this looks really bad, but you see…"

Astrid pulled me to the ground looking around the cove. I knew I had to get her out of there before she found Toothless.

"You're right, you're right. I'm through with the lies, I've been making outfits. So you've got me, it's time everyone knew, drag me back, go ahead. Here we go…" I said trying to get her to leave. But she suddenly bent my arm backwards pushing me down as I tried to not have my arm broken. "Why would you do that?"

"That's for the lies." She said kicking me down. "And that's…" she said bouncing the butt of her axe against my stomach. "…for everything else."

Toothless started to growl. "Oh man."

Suddenly Astrid pushed me down again screaming for me to get down and to run. Toothless bounded toward us ready to fight. Astrid raised her axe ready to swing. I pushed her and me to the ground throwing her axe as far away as I could, I then put myself between her and Toothless.

"No, no it's okay, it's okay, she's a friend." I said trying to calm him down. Toothless settled down, but still had a defensive look about him. "You just scared him." I said holding him back.

"I scared him? Who is him?" Astrid asked bewildered.

"Uh, Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid." I said introducing everyone, but not sure I liked the setting.

Astrid just looked at me in unbelief, shook her head and ran back toward the village.

"Astrid, wait you don't understand…" I said trying to go after her, but Toothless stopped me.

I looked into his eyes and I knew what he was thinking. It was no longer safe for us to stay on Berk. If anyone came for us, who knows what would happen. One thing was certain, if we stayed, they would kill Toothless. We couldn't stay, we had to leave and find a new home.

I climbed into the saddle and we took off. As we flew farther and farther away, I looked back at the island I had called home since I was born. It hurt to leave it all behind, especially my Dad, I didn't want to hurt him this way, but I couldn't stay anymore. If he found out about Toothless, there's no telling what he would do.

"I'm sorry Dad, but hopefully one day, if we ever do come back, things will be different. Hopefully, someday, you all will understand." I said rubbing a small tear from my eyes.

Toothless crooned looking up at me with sadness in his eyes. "It's okay bud, maybe one day we can make them all understand. Right now, all that matters is that you and I find a new home where we don't have to worry about being found." I said rubbing his head as we continued to fly over the ocean. "Don't worry Bud, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise."

We flew on for a few hours and it started to get dark. I was starting to feel tired but Toothless just kept going. I laid back and was about to doze off when I heard Toothless start to growl again. I sat up and saw a person sailing through the clouds. I thought I was hallucinating, but Toothless saw it too, so it couldn't have been that.

"Okay, no sudden moves." I told him softly.

Suddenly, a large dragon flew out from the clouds below us with the person on his back. They circled and stopped in front of us as if they were sizing us up.

"Hold on, hold on." I told Toothless.

Out of nowhere, I felt claws grab me and pulled me out of the saddle as Toothless plummeted down. "Toothless!" I called for him.

I was carried farther and farther away, I had to get back to Toothless, but I wasn't going to able to free myself. My only hope was to make them go back for him.

"Hey, you left my dragon back there. He can't fly on his own, he'll drown." I called out to the person on the dragon in front of the one carrying me. But they just flew on like they didn't hear me.

We flew on towards a large island covered in ice and through one of the caverns. At one point I was let go and dropped in the middle of a whole horde of dragons, some of which I had never seen before.

"Hey, we have to head back for my dragon." I called out again.

The dragons started coming closer toward me. I wasn't sure what to do, but then I remembered all that I had learned from Toothless and just hoped that it would work on these guys.

I slowly reached out and gently scratched the chin of a dragon that had gotten too close, they then started to purr and backed off. Another dragon started coming toward me, I pulled out a tuft of dragon nip and held it out for them to take. They took it and started to settle down. I reached out to touch their snout when I saw the person from before sneak out and start walking in a circle around me.

"Who are you? Why did you bring me here? What do you want with me? Do you even understand what I am saying?" I said starting to feel frustrated that they still wouldn't answer me.

Instead, they swung their staff around and then two dragons flew in carrying something wet and exhausted. It was Toothless!

"Toothless!" I said running toward him. "It's okay Bud, it's okay. You really had me worried there." I said rubbing my sleeve on his head trying to dry him off as he started to sneeze.

The dragons surrounding us lit up the room holding fires in their mouths. The person started walking slowly toward us. Toothless curled around me and started to growl as is telling them to back off. They reached out their hand and made some weird motion which had some strange effect on Toothless 'cause he fell over to the side as if he were in a trance. They then started to reach toward me, but backed off.

From behind the mask came a woman's voice, but what surprised me is what they said. "Hiccup." They knew my name.

She pulled her mask off and just stared at me. "Could it be, after all these years? How is this possible?"

"Uh, should I, should I know you?" I asked nervously.

"No, you were only a babe." She breathed. "But a mother never forgets."

I was shocked, this woman was claiming to be my mother whom everyone had told me was dead. I wanted to shout and run, but she stopped me. "Come." She said running off.

Toothless and I followed her. "Hold on, wait just a minute."

"This way."

"Come back here."

"Come." She beckoned again

"You can't just say something like that and run off. You're my mother? I mean, what the? Do you grasp how insane it sounds?"

"Come, quickly." She said disappearing over a ledge.

"I have questions. Where have you been all this time? What have you been doing?" I asked trying to climb over a ledge and Toothless giving a nudge up. "They said you were dead. Everyone thinks you were eaten by…" I started but was left unable to finish my sentence by what I saw entering into a large cavern.

Dragons, dragons of every size shape and color. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was all so amazing. I walked a few paces forward and my attention was then turned upward to where the woman who was claiming to be my mother and her dragon were watching us.

"This is where you've been for fifteen years?" I asked finally finding my voice again. She nodded. "You've been rescuing them, unbelievable." I breathed.

"You're not upset?" she asked.

"What, no, I don't know. It's a lot to get my head around to be frank, it's not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante, dragon lady."

"Well, at least I'm not boring," she laughed getting down. "Right?"

"I suppose there is that, one specific thing."

"Do, do you like it?"

"I, I don't have the words."

Mom looked over at Toothless in awe. "Can I," I nodded. "Oh, he's beautiful. He might very well be the last of his kind, and look he's your age." She said pointing to the frills on his neck. "No wonder you get along so well. How did you manage?"

"I found him in the woods, he was shot down and wounded." I admitting feeling the guilt of it return after all these weeks.

Mom looked at me sullenly. "This Snapplefang lost his leg to an iron trap. This Raincutter had a wing sliced by razor netting and this poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare and then left to die, alone and scared." It almost broke my heart hearing about what had happened to all these dragons she had rescued. Then she spied Toothless' tail. "And what of this, did dragon trappers do this too?"

I laughed nervously. "Yeah, crazy things is, I'm actually the one who shot him down." She looked at me confused. "Hey, it's okay though, I let him go, right Bud, we both did. Then I found him again and I was able to build him a new tail. Ta-da."

Toothless then swooped me onto his back and gave him a good scratch under the chin, just like he liked it.

"What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?"

"Well, we didn't stick around long enough to find out. We were found out by someone and they ran back to tell the village. I wanted to stop her, but Toothless knew as well as I did that it was no longer safe for us to stay. We had to leave. I have no doubt by now Dad has all but disowned me, but at least we're safe, and I guess in the end, that's what matters."

"I knew it." She muttered.

"What?"

"You're not the first one to befriend a dragon, son, but believe me when I say I tried as well, but people are not capable of change Hiccup. Some of us, were just born different.

"Berk was a land of kill or be killed, but I believed peace was possible. It was a very unpopular opinion. Then one night, a dragon broke into our house, finding you in the cradle. I rushed to protect you, but what I saw was proof of everything I believed.

"This wasn't a vicious beast, but an intelligent, gentle creature, whose soul reflected my own. But I was the only one to see it. Your father came to save us, but was only able to get to you. I was grabbed by Cloudjumper and carried off. You and your father nearly died that night, all because I couldn't kill a dragon."

"Yeah it runs in the family." I replied.

"It broke my heart to stay away, but I believed you'd be safer if I did."

"How did you survive?"

"Oh Cloudjumper never meant to harm me. He must have thought I belonged here, in the home of the Great Bewilderbeast, the alpha species, one of the few that still exist." Mom lead me to a cliff that overlooked a lake at the bottom of the cavern and in the water was a dragon so big I almost couldn't believe it, if I hadn't seen it, I probably wouldn't have. "Every nest has its queen, but this is the king of all dragons. With his icy breathe, this graceful giant built our nest, a safe haven for dragons everywhere."

I didn't know whether to be fascinated or worried, or both. But one question did finally come to mind when I found my voice again. "So, he's the one who has been sending all those dragons to invade Berk, this is the nest Dad has been looking for?"

"Of course not. The Alpha does not attack, not without cause. He protects us, we all live under his care and his command." Suddenly Mom pulled me down as a bunch of young dragons flew over us. "All but the babies of course, who listen to no one." She laughed lightly.

The Alpha moved over to where me and Mom were standing and looked right at me. I could feel my heart pounding as Mom went on talking.

"I've lived among them for fifteen years Hiccup, discovering their secrets."

The Alpha then let out a puff of icy mist that clung to my hair and clothes. Mom let out a small laugh.

"He likes you."

"Wow." I breathed wiping the icy out of my hair.

"You must be hungry."

"Yeah, I could eat."

"Good, it's feeding time." Mom said taking my hand and leading me out.

Toothless and Cloudjumper followed close behind. All I could think about was how I felt, and I was sure Toothless felt the same way, we had found our new home.