I do not own Dragons: Riders of Berk. Direct quotes from the series will be bolded.

When Dragons Run Wild

The wispy morning clouds hung over the island of Berk. A cool breeze brushed the island and its inhabitants every so often and the sun gently pierced through the cloud cover. It was perfect flying weather.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III flew his Night Fury, Toothless, through the sky, enjoying the sensation of wind rushing through his long hair. His best friend, Sunset Hockerson, sat behind him, her arms wrapped securely around his waist. The redhead glanced at the view below with a smile. "You know, sometimes I still have difficulty believing that this is really happening."

"What, flying on a dragon?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah, and the fact that we managed to change the way most Vikings view dragons." Sunset grinned. "It's a dream come true."

"You got that right," Hiccup agreed and patted Toothless' side. "I think that's enough stretching for now. What do you think, bud?"

Toothless cooed his agreement. They flew through the clouds and landed on a sea pillar, where their friends were waiting. "Alright, guys. It's best trick competition time. Who's gonna go first?" Hiccup asked.

Fishlegs Ingerman hesitated. "Um...well, I-"

"I'll go first," Snotlout Jorgenson interrupted.

Fishlegs frowned, annoyed. "Actually, I think-"

"I'll go first," Snotlout said firmly, casting the large boy a warning glare.

Astrid Hofferson sighed in exasperation. "Then just go already, will you?"

"You better believe I'll go. And when I do, Hookfang is gonna kick-"

But before he could finish his gloating, his Monstrous Nightmare took off into the sky, causing Snotlout to hang on for dear life. His friends watched in amusement as Hookfang completely disregarded his rider's commands. The dragon flew low to the water, weaving through sea stacks that were much too close for Snotlout's comfort.

The boy let out a scream of panic when his helmet banged off the side of a sea stack. "Hookfang! Stop it!"

Hookfang snickered and dove into the water, finishing off his routine. After a few seconds he popped back up with Snotlout gasping for air. Satisfied with his performance, the dragon flew back to the pillar and settled down comfortably. Snotlout slowly relinquished his grip on his dragon's horns and felt his body. "Yes! I'm still alive!"

The other teens rolled their eyes. Fishlegs eagerly waved his arm in the air. "Can it be my turn?"

"Go right ahead," Hiccup encouraged.

Fishlegs carefully guided Meatlug off of the pillar and flew her a few feet away. Everyone watched with amusement as the boy flew his Gronkle in a slow circle around the pillar before landing. Beaming, Fishlegs pumped his fist in the air. "Woo-hoo! New record!"

"Okay, now it's my turn!" Ruffnut Thorston cheered.

Tuffnut punched his twin sister in the shoulder. "No way! It's my turn!"

Sunset shook her head. "How many times do we have to remind you guys? Same. Dragon."

"Oh, yeah." Ruffnut and Tuffnut immediately stopped fighting and took off into the air. But as they flew towards the sea stacks, they couldn't agree on which direction to turn. And since it took two riders to fly their Zippleback Barf and Belch, the disagreement caused them to smack into the side of a sea stack. Annoyed with their riders, the two dragon heads flipped the twins high into the air before swooping away.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut screamed as they plummeted for the water below. "Okay, this kinda cool and scary at the same time!" Tuffnut hollered.

Hiccup frowned in concern and was about to rescue the twins when the Zippleback snatched the twins up and tossed them back into position. The twins did not squabble as they flew back to the sea pillar. "That was a pretty close brush with death," Ruffnut panted, resting her head against Barf's.

"I enjoyed it," Tuffnut voiced.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Alright, now it's my turn." She turned to Hiccup and Sunset and smirked. "You two might wanna take notes."

The blonde flew into the air with her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly. Everyone watched as Astrid and Stormfly worked in sync, perfectly executing a series of flips, turns and spirals. Snotlout scoffed when the girl landed next to him. "Yeah, that was cool. But let's see you do it without the dragon."

Astrid's response was a punch in the shoulder.

"Aw, that was nothing." Sunset grinned. "Just wait until you see what we can do."

Hiccup winked at Astrid and gave Toothless a nudge. The Night Fury immediately obeyed, flying towards the water and expanding his wings before they submerged. They quickly flew overtop the water, sweeping past sea stacks and cliffs before coming across an arched one, which interfered with their flight pattern.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sunset asked.

"Yup," Hiccup confirmed. The two teens jumped off of Toothless and landed on top of the sea stack. They ran across the rough surface as Toothless flew under the arch. In perfect synchronization the kids jumped on Toothless' back as he came out on the other side.

"Victory," Sunset cheered and high-fived Hiccup.

"Time for the big finale." Hiccup grinned and patted Toothless on the head. "You know what to do."

Their performance was finished off by a series of fire blasts that lit up the sky beautifully.

"That was awesome!" Fishlegs exclaimed.

Astrid shook her with a smirk. "And they're still the best."

"We'll see you guys later!" Hiccup hollered as they flew past.

"Try not to faint in the aftermath of our awesomeness!" Sunset teased. Hiccup rolled his eyes with a grin and guided Toothless to the village.

"Er, Hiccup," Sunset said as they approached the Hooligan village. "Do you see what I see?"

Hiccup glanced down at the plaza nervously. "You mean absolute chaos?"

"Uh-huh."

Hiccup landed Toothless and dismounted, helping Sunset to the ground. "Take a rest, bud." Sunset stroked Toothless' muzzle and the duo set off through the plaza, watching the chaos happen around them.

Dragons of all sizes were stealing food from houses. Monstrous Nightmares were sitting on rooftops (much to the homeowner's displeasure) and Terrible Terrors scuttled underfoot. Sunset scratched her neck as she watched a dragon mess up a woman's clean laundry. "This isn't good."

"You're telling me," Hiccup sighed.

"Heads up!" someone hollered and everyone immediately began running for cover. Confused, Sunset and Hiccup glanced up to see dozens of dragons flying overhead, unleashing their droppings. Yelping with disgust, the two raced over to Bucket and Mulch, who were guarding themselves with makeshift umbrellas.

"That's really gross," Sunset gagged.

"Hey Bucket and Mulch," Hiccup greeted. "I'm sorry about, uh...this."

"Happens every day at three," Bucket informed, mildly impressed. "They're regular, I'll give them that."

"It's better than the days of kill or get killed," Mulch said optimistically. "Oh, we have some cod for your father, Hiccup. Bucket, give the lad the cod."

Bucket bent down and picked a sack off of the ground. He frowned in confusion at the hole in the bottom of the bag. "Did I eat it already? Did I like it?"

"Er, actually, it was them." Sunset pointed to a couple of Terrible Terrors, who were dragging the cod behind a barrel.

"Sorry," Hiccup apologized again. "But thanks anyway."

"You're welcome," Bucket said cheerfully.

Making sure the coast was clear, the kids then headed off to Hiccup's house with Toothless trailing behind. "You know, it's a good thing most of the Vikings are willing to take the good with the bad," Sunset said.

"Most of them, anyway," Hiccup said bitterly. "You've forgotten Mildew."

"I tend to forget him on purpose," Sunset said idly.

The teens entered Hiccup's house and Toothless immediately curled up by the fire. Hiccup and Sunset climbed up to Hiccup's room. "So, what do you want to do?" Hiccup asked.

Sunset rocked back on her heels and glanced at Hiccup hopefully. "Well...there's a batch of pigs due to be slaughtered tomorrow morning..."

"Sun, you're the only one who can survive on eating fish, fruit and vegetables," Hiccup said in exasperation. "The rest of us need to eat meat."

Sunset gave her best pouty face. Hiccup gave in. "Oh, fine. We'll go free the pigs."

"Yay!"

...

As Hiccup and Sunset went to free the doomed farm animals, Stoick and Gobber were overseeing the storage of food for the winter. "Put most of it in the back," Stoick called. "The fishing boats are coming in with a huge catch!"

"Oh look," Gobber muttered, nudging Stoick in the side. "Here comes Mildew with his daily complaint."

Stoick sighed. "I'm afraid you picked a bad time, Mildew," he said firmly when the irritated man came up to him. "The freeze is coming soon and I'm in the middle of storing food."

Mildew completely ignored the brush-off. "Those dragons are not fit to live with civilized people!" he ranted.

Gobber smirked. "And neither are you. Your house is on the far side of the island for a reason, you know."

Mildew bristled. "Oh, sure, make your jokes while these dragons steal our cod and turn our houses into piles of rubble!"

Some of the other Vikings gathered around, agreeing completely with Mildew. "He's right!" someone shouted.

Mildew nodded. "See, Stoick? It's not just me. Those beasts are wild and unpredictable."

"Yeah!"

The man pointed a finger at Bucket, who lingered at the front of the crowd. "They cracked this man's skull like an egg!"

Bucket blinked. "I like all kinds of eggs."

On a roll, Mildew whirled around and glared at Stoick. "Those dragons need to be locked up in cages!"

Stoick glanced at the crowd as they cheered in agreement. An uneasy feeling rose in his stomach. "Listen-"

"If you don't deal with them, they'll eat us out of house and home!" Mildew cried. The other Vikings hollered their support.

Sunset and Hiccup, who had returned from letting the pigs loose in the forest, stormed out of the crowd, fed up with what was being said. "It's not their fault!" Sunset insisted.

"They're just being dragons," Hiccup added in defense. "They don't mean any harm."

Stoick placed a restraining hand on their shoulders and pulled them back. "Look, if there's a problem, I'll deal with it.

Mildew glowered. "There is definitely a problem, Stoick." He turned around and started walking through the crowd. "And I think I speak for everyone when I say it had better be dealt with."

As he left the Vikings started to shout out at Stoick, complaining about their own dragon-related problems. Gobber urged the two kids off. "It's going to get ugly pretty soon," he warned. "And I suggest you two get Toothless out of here."

"Okay," Sunset agreed hesitantly. "See you later." She gently took Hiccup's arm and the two brought Toothless to Hiccup's house, suddenly worried that their new relationship with the dragons would crumble.

...

A heavy darkness fell over Berk and the evening found Stoick pacing up and down in front of the fire. Sunset and Hiccup sat with Toothless comfortably in the corner and Gobber leaned against the wall, idly carving a duck out of wood with his knife hand.

"I got it!" Stoick said suddenly. "We can put signs!"

Gobber arched an eyebrow. "You want to put up signs? For the dragons?"

Stoick scowled. "No! For the people!"

"That's even worse," Sunset giggled. "Most of us can't even read."

Stoick shot her a dry look. "Alright. How about we stretch a net all around the plaza?"

"Dragons have fire, Stoick," Gobber reminded his friend.

"I know that!" Stoick snapped. He groaned in frustration and flipped a chair over. "Maybe Mildew has a point."

Hiccup righted the chair Stoick had thrown and sat on it, resting his chin on the backrest. "Dad, wait, I have an idea. What if I handle the dragons?"

Stoick eyed Hiccup uncertainly. "You want to deal with the dragons?"

"I'm the best person for the job!" Hiccup exclaimed.

Sunset walked over and threw an arm around Hiccup's shoulder. "Yeah, if anyone can control them, we can," she said confidently, indicating that there was no way Hiccup was doing this without her.

Stoick and Gobber regarded each other thoughtfully before Stoick finally nodded. "Alright, Hiccup. I'll give you and Sunset a chance to fix this problem. Starting tomorrow."

Gobber laughed. "Well then, I think it's time we ought to be heading home. Sunset's going to need a lot of rest to prepare herself for all the burns she'll get tomorrow."

Sunset wrinkled her nose. "Your lack of faith is disturbing." She gave Toothless a hug goodbye before following Gobber out the door.

Hiccup grinned and waved as the two left. "Bye, Gobber. Bye, Sun."

"Later, Hiccup," Sunset called.

"I think you should get all the rest you can, too," Stoick advised. "You have a big day tomorrow."

The boy nodded and went up to bed with Toothless following behind.

There was a lot of work to do tomorrow.

...

The following morning found Hiccup and Sunset in the middle of the plaza with Toothless flanking them. They scanned the chaos happening around them. "There's gonna be some changes around here," Hiccup said firmly.

"Where do we start?" Sunset asked.

"Get away from my bread!" a Viking woman hollered, attempting to shoo a Deadly Nadder away from her freshly baked loaf. She fled into her house and the Nadder attempted to go after her.

"Right there," Hiccup said.

"Hold on, ma'am!" Sunset called and gently urged the Nadder away from the door. Hiccup strode forwards and placed a hand on the Nadder's nose.

"Bad dragon," he said sternly. "We don't steal people's bread."

The Nadder relaxed, cooing softly. Hiccup smiled. "Yes!"

The victory was short lived, however, as a Gronkle crashed through the plaza, riling up the surrounding dragons. "Minor setback," Hiccup said, rubbing the back of his neck as he watched the Gronkle and the Nadder chase a flock of chickens.

"Er, Hiccup?" Sunset tugged on his arm and pointed. A Monstrous Nightmare and Deadly Nadder were fighting at the top of a grassy slope. Running down the slope was a herd of sheep, one of them on fire. Sunset gasped in panic and raced after the poor sheep. "Hold on, Woolworth! I'm coming!"

Overwhelmed, Hiccup decided that he was probably more suited to help the flaming sheep rather than breaking up a dragon brawl. "Toothless, break up that fight!" Hiccup ordered and Toothless immediately obeyed.

Hiccup ran to get a bucket of water. As he went, he was in the cross-fire of Vikings chasing after dragons. "Focus on the flaming sheep," he muttered to himself as he filled up a wooden bucket with water from the well. "Focus on the flaming sheep."

On the old watch towers, the Viking teens sat with their dragons as they watched Hiccup and Sunset fail to quell the chaos. "We really should help them," Astrid mused.

Snotlout snickered. "In a little bit."

Hiccup finally filled a bucket of water and grabbed it, racing after Sunset, who was having little success in catching the sheep. Woolworth (as named by Sunset) ran in Hiccup's direction. Hiccup prepared to throw the bucket of water, but Woolworth knocked him to the ground before he could do so, causing the boy to spill the water all over himself. Hiccup slid down the slope, exhausted. Sunset collapsed beside him, panting heavily.

"This is going well," she wheezed, climbing to her feet once more.

"Uh-huh," Hiccup said dazedly and allowed Sunset to help him to his feet. Together the two cornered Woolworth and Hiccup used a spare bucket of water to put out the flame. "Sorry," Sunset apologized, stroking his wool soothingly. Woolworth relaxed instantly.

Hiccup shook his head. "You truly are an animal whisperer."

"I just really like animals," Sunset shrugged and urged the sheep along his way. She glanced up and froze. "Uh...Hiccup?"

The two stared in horror as a herd of dragons flew overhead, their droppings raining down upon the plaza. With no time to take cover, Sunset cowered behind Hiccup and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Perfect," Hiccup groaned before bracing for impact.

"That's nasty!" Tuffnut laughed, holding his stomach.

Astrid looked at the two below with sympathy. They had given it their best shot.

Too bad it wasn't good enough.

...

After a dozen baths, Hiccup and Sunset rested at the Haddock household. The girl lay sprawled on the wooden floor, every bone in her body aching. Hiccup rubbed his neck and moaned. "I'm sore all over. Even here," he said, removing his prosthetic foot. "Is it possible for this thing to be sore?"

Sunset gave a grunt, not having the energy to answer in a full sentence. Toothless peered at his humans with an expression of pity and mild amusement.

"Hiccup, are you here?" Astrid's voice echoed from downstairs. Hiccup immediately got to his feet and smoothed out his shirt. Sunset did not bother to get up.

"Do I look okay?" Hiccup asked Toothless frantically.

Toothless glanced at Hiccup and growled, attempting to be supportive. Hiccup sighed. "Great. Dragon pity."

Astrid entered Hiccup's room and eyed the two teens with a worried expression. Hiccup smiled brightly. "Hey, Astrid! It's great to see you!"

"Uh-huh. How was your day?" Astrid asked cautiously.

"Oh, nothing much happened," Hiccup lied. "Sunset and I just hung around the plaza."

"Yeah, we saw you there." Astrid smiled sympathetically. She brushed some rubble off of Hiccup's vest. "I'm surprised you're not in the same position Sunset is."

Hiccup collapsed on his bed, allowing his exhaustion to show. "That flaming sheep is gonna haunt my dreams for the next month."

"Hicc-up!" Stoick suddenly hollered from downstairs, catching the attention of the teens.

Not quite liking his father's tone of voice, Hiccup got to his feet as Stoick entered his room. "Why does the plaza look like a war zone?" he demanded.

Hiccup rubbed his neck. "It looks bad now-"

"Extremely bad," Astrid whispered.

"But it'll get better once my plan is complete," Hiccup finished hurriedly.

"So you do have a plan?" Stoick arched an eyebrow.

"Of course I do!" Hiccup lied. "It involves a lot of diagrams and its pretty complex. Right Sun?"

"Whatever," Sunset mumbled, half-heartedly playing along.

Stoick glanced at her and then at Hiccup. "She's fine," Hiccup said dismissively. "She's just resting so that she has lots of energy for the next phase of our plan tomorrow."

"Sure," Stoick said, not believing him in the least. "Whatever you do better work, Hiccup, because Mildew has got the whole island riled up. If you don't get those dragons under control, then their heads will be called for."

Stoick stomped down the stairs and Hiccup stroked Toothless' muzzle soothingly. "Your head is staying right where it should be."

"We promise," Sunset added.

"There are a million dragons out there and two of you," Astrid pointed out. "I hope you do have a plan."

"I do," Hiccup assured her. "Er, I mean, I will."

Astrid shook her head. "If you say so. Good luck, guys." She waved and departed, deciding that her friends could use as much spare time as possible to figure out a solution.

Hiccup dropped to his bed once more. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Sunset said tiredly. "All I know is that I'm sleeping over. I can't feel my legs and that means it probably isn't a good idea to walk home."

Toothless curled up beside Sunset and closed his eyes. Sunset petted his head and sighed. "There was a class that taught us to kill dragons. Why can't there be a class that tells us how to train them?"

Hiccup's eyes widened. "That's it! We can convert the old arena into a training ring!"

"Will your dad allow that?"

"..."

"We're going to go behind his back, aren't we?" Sunset asked knowingly.

"You got it."

...

The next day, Hiccup and Sunset gathered the teens and their dragons into the training ring. Ruffnut glanced around dubiously. "Your plan is to train dragons?"

"In the place where we used to kill them?" Tuffnut added.

"Well, we don't do that anymore, so that's why this place is available," Hiccup pointed out.

"Hiccup, the dragons seem a little nervous," Astrid said as she patted Stormfly's muzzle soothingly.

"They're very sensitive, especially Meatlug," Fishlegs added, hugging his dragon close. "She lost a family member here."

"You know, it's really great your dad just gave us this place," Astrid said, stepping over to where Hiccup and Sunset were feeding Toothless baguettes.

"Er, yeah, it would have been nice if he had," Hiccup agreed.

"We're going behind your father's back?" Astrid asked incredulously.

"This surprises you?" Sunset asked dryly.

"Okay, enough talking about this!" Hiccup snapped. "We got work to do." He turned to face his friends. "We want dragons to live in our world without destroying it and to do that they're going to need our help."

"We can totally help them destroy the village." Tuffnut grinned.

Sunset rolled her eyes. "Not what he's trying to get at, guys."

"This is serious," Hiccup said firmly. "Mildew is going to do all he can to lock our dragons up. I'm not going to let that happen."

"Neither are we," Ruffnut piped up.

"First problem," Sunset took over, holding up a baguette, which Toothless instantly ate. "The dragons are eating everything they can get their claws on. To get them to drop what they shouldn't have-" She removed another baguette from the basket and held it out to Toothless, who took it once more. "-you just scratch them under the chin." She demonstrated and Toothless' mouth slackened in bliss. She removed the baguette, satisfied.

"That may be how you do things," Snotlout snorted, striding over and snatching the baguette from Sunset's hand. "But Hookfang and I have a different way of doing stuff." He chucked the baguette at his dragon, who snatched it out of the air, half of the bread poking out of his mouth. Snotlout walked confidently over to his dragon and snapped, "You drop that right now!"

Hookfang lowered his head and spit the bread out. And then he chomped down on Snotlout's head and torso, giving the boy a light shake.

"He dropped it, didn't he?" Snotlout's muffled voice asked from inside Hookfang's mouth.

Tuffnut smirked. "Should we give him a hand?"

Astrid grinned. "In a little bit."

"Okay, okay. Fun time over," Hiccup called. He handed everyone a baguette. "We have a lot of work to do but I know together we can train these dragons."

Everyone got to work, leaving Snotlout in his dragon's mouth. "Hello? Can someone do the chin-scratchy thingy? Please?"

Sunset sighed, feeling sorry for the boy. "Well, he did say please." She wandered over and gave Hookfang a scratch under the chin. Snotlout dropped to the ground, covered in saliva. Sunset smirked. "That's a good look for you."

"Oh, shut up."

...

After a full day of training, the next morning Hiccup and Sunset led the other teens through the plaza. "What do you know? No dragons." Fishlegs mused, peering around the strangely empty and quiet plaza.

"Okay…weird," Hiccup muttered. "Where are they?"

Just as the words left his mouth an explosion sounded from the other side of the village. The kids turned to stare as flames and smoke billowed behind some houses. "Found them," Sunset sighed.

The kids raced in the direction of the smoke. They were dismayed to find that the dragons were ransacking the storage house. Astrid stared in shock at the familiar Deadly Nadder that was eating fish from upturned fish barrels. "Is that you, Stormfly?"

Stormfly glanced up when she heard her name. Astrid groaned. "Oh, Stormfly!"

"Bad dragon, Hookfang!" Snotlout scolded his dragon, who was eating the fish with Stormfly.

Hiccup and Sunset hurried to see the extent of the damage of the storage house. The door was off of its hinges and crates and barrels littered the area. Stoick was inside, cleaning up the mess. Frustrated, he threw a broken beam aside with a roar of anger. Spotting Hiccup and Sunset, he marched outside. "Everything's gone!" he shouted. "They've left nothing for us for the freeze!"

"I told you, Stoick," Mildew chirped from the sidelines. "But you didn't listen. Now see what happens when you put a group of teenagers in charge?"

The teens glared at him.

"And now look at what the beasts have done!"

"We can fix this!" Hiccup said desperately.

"Enough, Hiccup. How can I expect you to control all the dragons when you can't control your own?" Stoick demanded.

Sunset and Hiccup peered past his shoulder to see Toothless eating up the scattered fish.

"Toothless," Sunset groaned.

Stoick gathered all the empty baskets and ordered Mulch and Bucket to man the boats for another catch. It did not matter to the village leader that it took six months to gather the last supply of fish. All that mattered was that they tried.

Hiccup and Sunset hurried after Stoick as he left the ruined storage house. Gobber lazily followed along. "Dad, I can do this!" Hiccup insisted. "Sunset and I know dragons better-"

"Hiccup, I have an entire village to feed," Stoick stressed. "They've gone too far this time! By tonight, I want them caged."

Hiccup and Sunset were about to argue when Mildew stormed up. "You have to do more than cage them!" he snapped. "You have to send them away!"

The surrounding Vikings shouted their agreement. Stoick raised a surrendering hand. "Alright, alright. They'll be caged tonight and tomorrow morning Hiccup and Sunset will send them off the island." He shot the two teens an apologetic look. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely before marching off. Gobber ruffled Sunset's hair before following his friend.

"Hiccup," Sunset whispered, rubbing Toothless' muzzle. "What are we going to do?"

"We'll think of something." Hiccup said, putting a hand on Toothless' head. "We have to."

Or else they would lose Toothless forever.

...

The teens couldn't eat dinner that night. All were miserable at the prospect of losing their dragons. "This sucks," Snotlout muttered, stabbing his dinner.

"It majorly sucks," Astrid agreed. "What am I going to do without Stormfly? I'm going to miss seeing her face every morning."

"And I'm going to miss Meatlug licking my feet as I sleep," Fishlegs said forlornly.

Astrid sighed heavily. "We better get this over with."

The teens got up dejectedly and walked out of the Great Hall. Sunset and Hiccup walked toward Toothless, who was napping by the central fire in the Hall. "We can we do?" Hiccup asked desperately. He bent down and rubbed Toothless soothingly. "We can't lose our best friend."

"Oh, how sad. A boy and a girl saying goodbye to their dragon," Mildew mocked as he stepped forward.

"No one's saying goodbye yet," Sunset said hotly. Sensing trouble, Toothless growled softly.

"Your problem is that you thought dragons could be trained," Mildew sneered. "A dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gonna do."

Mildew cackled and walked away. Hiccup and Sunset watched after him stonily for a moment before the door reopened and two Vikings walked. The cool wind blew into the Hall and extinguished the central fire. Toothless quickly rekindled the flames.

"Oh, thank you," a Viking woman said gratefully as she took a seat near the warm fire.

Hiccup and Sunset stared at each other, wide-eyed.

"That's it!" they exclaimed.

"Come on, Toothless," Hiccup said hurriedly. "We've got something we need to do."

...

It was dark by the time Sunset and Hiccup flew to the arena, where they could see their friends closing the cage on their dragons. "Don't close the door!" Sunset hollered, landing Toothless in the ring. Hiccup jumped off and hurried over to the lever, opening the cage door once more.

"What's going on?" Astrid asked, surprised.

"We're not locking these dragons up," Hiccup said firmly.

"Your dad changed his mind?" Astrid asked, delighted. A sudden thought struck her and she frowned. "We're going behind his back again, aren't we?"

"Maybe," Hiccup said evasively. "Listen, the dragons are gonna do what dragons are gonna do. That's their nature." He gestured at the dragons filing out of the cage behind him. "What we need to do is learn how to use it!"

The kids glanced at each other, hopeful. "You know, that's so crazy it just might work!" Tuffnut exclaimed.

"Then let's start brainstorming!" Sunset cheered. "We have some dragons to save."

...

The morning sun shone in the sky. In the arena, the teens mounted their dragons, ready to do what they had planned the night before. "Alright guys, let's do this," Hiccup said determinedly and they all took flight.

Snotlout directed Hookfang towards Bucket and Mulch's fishing boat. The two Vikings yelped in panic upon seeing Hookfang, but they quickly realized that the Monstrous Nightmare was scaring fish into their nets. "Thanks a lot, dragon!" Mulch called as Snotlout and Hookfang emerged from the water, triumphant.

Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs flew towards Mildew's house, where the man was tilling his soil. "Hello, Mildew!" Astrid said cheerfully as Stormfly used her tail to overturn the soil, leaving behind deep grooves. Toothless followed behind, where Hiccup and Sunset upturned a bag of seeds into the grooves.

Mildew gaped, hardly believing what was occurring.

"Fertilizer time!" Sunset called.

Fishlegs led a herd of dragons over Mildew's garden, where the droppings landed right in the soil. "Don't be so sour, Mildew," Sunset chided.

"Yeah," Hiccup added. "That was three months of work we just saved you!"

In the fields, the twins used Barf and Belch to herd the boars and yaks. Hiccup and Sunset joined them moments later, helping their friends round the animals up in the barn. Gobber eyed the kids in amazement before closing the barn door.

The other teens soon joined them and they all gathered in front of the barn. "That was wicked!" Fishlegs exclaimed.

"How did you know this would work?" Astrid asked, amazed.

Sunset and Hiccup exchanged a glance. "Well, actually, it was Mildew who gave us the idea." Sunset grinned.

"We have to work with dragon nature instead of against it," Hiccup added.

"Look, Stoick! Those dragons are hardly in cages!"

Hiccup and Sunset glanced nervously at the blank expression on Stoick's face. "No, they aren't. Hiccup, Sunset, put those dragons where I ordered you to put them. The rest of you, get to the arena, now."

The teens scrambled to obey, climbing on their dragons and flying to the arena. "This is not good," Sunset muttered.

"I know we disobeyed an order, but we fixed the problem!" Hiccup exclaimed.

They arrived at the arena faster than they would have liked. With a heavy heart, Sunset and Hiccup locked the dragons into the cages and lined up in the middle of the arena with the rest of the teens.

"Why are people coming to watch?" Sunset hissed. "This should not be considered entertainment."

"Ssh!" Astrid hissed. "Here he comes!"

Stoick and Gobber entered the arena with serious expressions. "I'm too beautiful to go to jail," Ruffnut moaned.

Tuffnut snorted. "What liar told you that?"

"All of you disobeyed my orders," Stoick boomed. "And there will be consequences."

"I knew we were gonna get in trouble," Astrid grumbled, regretting going behind her leader's back. "You two never listen!"

Feeling guilty, as everything was their idea, Hiccup and Sunset stepped forward. "If anyone should be punished, it should be us," Hiccup said insistently.

"No, you were all a part of this," Stoick said sternly.

Brimming with anticipation, Mildew glowered down at the meddlesome teens from the stands.

"You took control of this place without my permission and you released the dragons against my orders. Things have to change around here. That's why-"

Unable to contain himself, Gobber interjected, "You're all getting a dragon training academy!"

Hiccup and Sunset gaped in shock. Astrid beamed with delight. The twins high-fived and Fishlegs and Snotlout fist-bumped.

"I wanted to tell them, Gobber!" Stoick said indigently.

"You can tell them the rest!"

"But you told most of it!" Stoick protested.

"I didn't tell them the part of how proud you are."

Stoick sighed in exasperation. "Yes, well-what he said, Hiccup. You've all made me very proud. I want you all to use this dragon training academy."

He walked over to the lever and opened the gate. Snotlout rushed forward, ecstatic. "Hookfang, buddy!"

His Monstrous Nightmare promptly picked him up by the back of his vest and carried him away. Hiccup and Sunset hugged Toothless happily. Mildew scowled and stormed out of the arena, furious.

"We did it, Hiccup." Sunset beamed.

"Like we always do," Hiccup confirmed.

Stoick walked forward and put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Now all that's left is to train them."

"As long as I got her and him, I can do anything." Hiccup smiled, slinging his arms around Toothless and Sunset. Astrid coughed pointedly behind him, and Hiccup grinned. "And them too, of course."

The arena door suddenly burst open and a Viking raced in, looking flustered. "Stoick! I've searched for days, but I'm afraid I can't find the herd of pigs anywhere!"

Stoick blinked, stunned. "The pigs disappeared?"

"You don't think they knew they were going to get chopped a few days ago and escaped?" the farmer asked in concern.

Gobber closed his eyes, realization striking him. "The pigs didn't, but someone else did." He glared at his new charge, who beamed innocently back.

"Sunset."