Beard of Thor, I took such a long time to get this out. For that I am sorry. Well now here's to hoping I remember what I was writing! Hahaha......shutting up now.

It was decided that Hiccup and Zahnlos would go to scout out the nest during the night, given Zahnlos was a Night Fury, and so they would leave a bit after dinner so they both wouldn't have to worry about being hungry while there. The reason behind this was not only the fact that Zahnlos was a Night Fury so he preferred the dark, but a raid would most likely be going on so most of the dragons would be gone, making it easier to scout out the nest. Hiccup would shield Zahnlos from the effects of Drottningin's mind control while they were there as neither of them wanted to get stuck in the nest.

Promise me you'll be fine, both of you. Valka signed at Hiccup as the young teen was getting onto Zahnlos to fly off for the scouting trip.

Don't worry, we'll be fine I promise. Hiccup signed back before turning to check he was safely in the saddle. Just before the pair took off Hiccup felt a hand on his shoulder, so he turned to see who it was.

Don't attack her, she will eat you whole if you do. Unole signed at Hiccup, his eyes a light grey as he stood there fearful that what happened to him and Penumbra would happen to these two.

I get it, She is dangerous so I need to avoid combat. Hiccup replied in frustration, still not understanding the danger that she represented. Unole simply nodded his head before walking away as the pair took off, leaving his mother standing there by herself due to Unole going back to Ivar and Specter who were staying with Penumbra as he was recovering. The pair flew through the darkening night sky towards the Queen's Nest, one hesitant to go and the other eager. They flew onwards for a few hours before Zahnlos started to act a bit strange.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked him as the dragon slowed to a hover before a large fog bank.

"If we go any farther, She will know we are there. We are only a few minutes from the nest." Zahnlos informed him.

"All right, I guess here is where we see if all that training has paid off." Hiccup said before he started to mask their presence. Once he did, Hiccup nudged Zahnlos forward, a silent go-ahead from the teen. With that reassurance, Zahnlos once again started his flight towards the Nest. He felt the familiar comforting presence of Hiccup in his mind, hiding them from the searching mind of the Queen.

"There it is Hiccup, the Drottningin's Nest," Zahnlos said as the massive volcano that housed the Queen and the Nest came into view. Hiccup was awestruck by the sheer size and magnitude of the Nest as they flew closer towards the nest. It wasn't any bigger than the Sanctuary, probably a little smaller. That said, it was still a massive structure made of rock. Even though Zahnlos knew where the main entrance cave was, he decided to fly towards the opening at the top of the volcano, allowing a better view inside and the Queen would not expect them to sneak in through the exit. Just as they had planned, the nest was relatively empty of any dragons due to them being out on raids of the local Viking settlements.

"Look at the size of this thing. How many dragons can it hold?" Hiccup asked as they landed on a ledge just inside the nest, Hiccup getting off to get a better look around.

"When I was last here the count was around four hundred dragons," Zahnlos informed him. "Though there were things that I didn't know about so there could have been more. Which would explain why I didn't know about the humans being here."

"Where would they stay? We should confirm it since we are here." Hiccup suggested, turning back to his dragon.

"There is a cave that the Queen would not let anybody near."

"That must be it, show me the cave bud." Hiccup said as he hopped back on his friend's back. Zahnlos was soon in the air and had taken them to the other side of the Nest, though he stuck to the edge instead of flying over the middle of the Volcano. When they arrived, both man and dragon could feel the darkness that seemed to surround the Nest grow thicker the closer they got to the entrance of the cave.

"Here it is Hiccup, though I don't think we should go in," Zahnlos said as they stood a short distance away from the entrance.

"Why not? It's not like there is anybody in there, everybody is out raiding you said yourself." Hiccup tried to reason with the dragon, not sensing the darkness.

"I still will not go into that cave. The dark presence is at its strongest in there and I wish not to tempt fate and go in."

"Ok you big baby boo, guess I'm going in alone then." Hiccup said before walking into the cave. After a few feet, Hiccup was finally able to see something in the darkness of the cave. There were four distinct nesting areas, one for each of the major kinds of dragons; Gronkle, Zippleback, Nadder, and Monstrous Nightmare. What he saw after that was a surprise and caused confusion. There was clear evidence that there were also five different humans based on the clothing and other things that were strewn about the different nesting sites. By the looks of it, a female with the Nadder, a male each with the Nightmare and Gronkle, and finally twins with the Zippleback. This confirmed that there were five different humans living in a nest that was single-handedly waging war on mankind and led by a tyrannical cannibalistic titan of a dragon.

"They were right, there are five people living here." Hiccup said as he came out of the cave to see Zahnlos hiding. He quickly got down and hid next to him. "What's wrong?"

"We need to leave NOW," Zahnlos said with panic clear in his voice. Before Hiccup could answer he felt the ground shake beneath his feet as it would when the King would roar. Hiccup didn't need anything else to convince him to leave as a giant head and massive amounts of smoke appeared out of the lava, rising high above them.

"WHO DARES TO TRESPASS IN MY NEST!" A baritone female voice boomed through both of their heads, seeming to have a slight stunning effect on the both of them.

"NOW Hiccup!" Zahnlos yelled at his rider who was just about to get in the saddle when he froze at the voice of the Queen. Hearing his dragon's panicked shout snapped Hiccup out of the trance and he quickly finished getting into the saddle. As soon as he sat down Zahnlos jumped back to avoid the massive jaw of the Queen, which caught nothing but rock and air. With a massive roar, several dragons who had stayed back from the raids appeared and started to chase after them. Hiccup quickly attempted to create a mental shield to protect them from the influence of the Queen, as he could feel her presence in the back of his mind. Zahnlos was leaping around and soon took to the sky to avoid both the massive jaws of the Queen and the other dragons.

"YOU SHALL SUBMIT OR DIE." The voice once again boomed out. Hiccup could feel a massive force press against the mental shield that he had put up and was now hastily attempted to reinforce. Zahnlos seemed to feel it as well and faltered slightly before renewing his flight up towards the exit. With their cover being blown, Zahnlos threw caution to the wind and went straight up over lava, heading right for the opening. Neither of them looked back, knowing there were multiple dragons and the Queen right behind as they tried to get away. Soon fire started to fly past them from the other dragons.

"YOU HAVE CHOSEN DEATH!" The voice once again echoed and Zahnlos could hear the Queen readying her fire, not caring if she incinerated some of her own dragons in the process. His wingbeats became frantic, clawing for as much air as he could to go just a little bit faster. The first blast barely missed them but was close enough to give Hiccup a sunburn on any exposed piece of skin.

The two blasted out of the top of the volcano as the Queen again blasted fire after them, giving them a bat-out-of-hell look. Hiccup could feel the massive mental force that could only be the Queen getting stronger and almost breaking through his mental shield if not for Zahnlos aiding him to help keep the shield up. Soon Her mental pressure started to dissipate as Zahnlos flew away faster than he ever had before. The pair quickly flew out of her range and back towards the Sanctuary, Zahnlos flying so fast that Hiccup would have been thrown out of the saddle if not for the safety system he installed. The two arrived back at the Sanctuary exhausted, both passing out as soon as the Night Fury landed just inside the entrance.

A few of the dragons that saw them come in and collapse rushed to inform Valka, Ivar, and Unole that they had returned. The three of them and Cloudjumper came rushing to where the boys had all but crash-landed to find Hiccup passed out and slumped forward onto Zahnlos who was flat on his stomach, wings splayed out across the ground.

"What do you think happened?" Valka asked as they rushed to the pair to see if they were injured.

"Well, I'm not seeing any physical injuries on either of them," Ivar said as he and Unole worked to get Hiccup out of the saddle. The implication of some type of mental injury that none of them could treat did not help comfort anybody there.

"We should take them to the Bewilderbeast, see if he can do anything; this seems like a problem with the mind," Unole suggested as they lowered Hiccup to the ground a little ways away from Zahnlos. What they did not notice as they talked to each other, but Cloudjumper did was how the two seemed to be almost subconsciously trying to get back in touch with each other. This confused the dragon who closed his eyes to try and contact one or both of the pair that lay before him.

"Let's do it. Cloudjumper, can you bring Zahnlos?" Valka asked as she picked up her son. The Stormcutter opened his eyes and nodded, picked the smaller dragon up, and centered him on his back with help from Ivar and Unole before following his rider. The four of them walked as fast as they could to the center of the nest where the great Bewilderbeast was resting in his pool of water, already looking at them as they came. As Cloudjumper set the Night Fury down on the ground next to where Valka had put Hiccup, the King looked down at the pair before up at them.

"What happened? Were they injured?" The King asked as he looked over the boys.

"No, they arrived back from their scouting trip and passed out where they landed. We don't know what caused it but there are no physical injuries to either of them my King." Valka told him as he moved his face closer to the pair, closing his eyes so he could focus on finding their minds. He was barely able to find the mental presence of both boy and dragon, but there was something else there that surprised him even more. The last time that he had the two together to help them strengthen their bond, which was a few days before the scouting run, the metaphorical bridge that spanned their minds and brought them together was relatively small, about wide enough for a Zippleback to walk across. What he saw before him was a connection between the pair that would be large enough for two Bewilderbeast to walk across side by side. Never before had he seen such a strong connection between anybody, much less between a human and a dragon. Though that was all he could see; not only had their bond grown to unknown levels but Hiccup had placed such a strong mental barrier up that even he could not breakthrough.

"So, what's wrong with them? Why aren't they waking up?" Unole asked after a few moments of the king concentrating on getting through the mental shield that Hiccup had put up, but no matter what he tried he couldn't breakthrough.

"I do not know why they are unconscious as your boy has thrown up the strongest mental shield I have ever seen." The king informed Valka who passed it on to Unole and Ivar. "He and his dragon have also bonded to a point far past what I thought possible for anybody. He truly has the soul of a dragon to be able to reach such a level."

"What should we do?" Valka asked, the information that she had just received not fully sinking into her mind nor the minds of her companions to whom she relayed the information.

"Let them rest, but keep them together. I fear what would happen if we separate them as this type of bond is near unheard of and still fresh." The King told them before turning back around so he faced the back wall of the Sanctuary so he could think more about what he had just observed. On that wall was a cave where the oldest dragons stayed, forming a sort of Counsel of the Elders that the Bewilderbeast would use when he was deep in thought about something and needed another opinion. As the King did that, Valka and Cloudjumper took the boys back to their cave while Unole and Ivar went back to their dragons. Cloudjumper set Zahnlos down first and as he did the wing of the Night Fury seemed to open and Valka felt Hiccup try to reach his scaly friend as she went to lay him in his bed. With the King's words still in her head, she moved so that Hiccup would slide into the open space by the Fury's belly, and as soon as she set her son down the wings closed like a scaly black cocoon.

"Come on Cloudjumper, let's go patrol the Sanctuary while we wait," Valka said with a hint of sadness in her voice as she patted the Stormcutter's belly. Giving her a nod they both left the cave, hoping that the pair would be awake by the time they returned back from their patrol.

Thanks to everybody who has stuck with me! It's been fun rewriting this story, especially when it comes time to read and redo the AN at the start and end of the chapters.

Let's see, let's see, there was something else I was supposed to do.... Oh ya. If anything is confusing do hesitate to leave a review or send me a PM, I will try to make it less confusing for you; Second, I am incorporating a tad bit of the type of bonding that you see in the movie Eragon.

*Boo's and Hisses from the Eragon book fans* Hey, I don't have the book's to read and it's an okay movie on its own. Don't blame me for watching it and being inspired.

With that over, they will be able to share certain things. But I will not let Hiccup hear, he will stay deaf throughout the whole of the story. Also, be prepared for the next chapter to start in a dreamscape.

Semper Fi,

Thearizona