A mother never forgets.

This woman was Hiccup's mother. This mysterious woman, who rescued Rapunzel and Hiccup and their dragons, was his mother. Hiccup felt a swirl of emotions.

First of all, shock, second of all excitement, third of all joy, and fourth of all...Gah, who were they kidding? They didn't even know what to feel.

And just like that, she turned and raced down another corridor. After exchanging glances, Hiccup and Rapunzel chased after her.

"Hold on!" Hiccup called after Valka as they raced through the corridors of the tunnel Rapunzel followed him closely, as did Toothless and Serenity. "Wait just a minute! I-"

"This way," Valka cut in, turning around to face them briefly before leaping over a stone as if she had done it a gazillion times.

"Wait!" Rapunzel shouted. "I think that we have questions!"

"Many!" Hiccup stated.

"Come," his mother said in reply, maneuvering herself over rocks and between stones, and even under a few more jagged pieces of ice.

"You can't just say something like that," Hiccup went on as they make their way through the small corridor, "and runoff! You're my mother!? I mean, what the...? Do-do you grasp not insane it sounds!?"

"Come! Quickly! There's something you need to see!" Valka urged, climbing up a steep rock and disappearing over the side of it. Rapunzel and Serenity jumped up to it with ease, but Hiccup struggled, slipping every time he was certain he had a grip.

"I have questions!" Hiccup shouted.

Rapunzel grabbed his wrist and pulled him up with the help of Toothless, and they continued following his mother, who was still jumping around the rocks like some sort of super squirrel.

"Where have you been all this time!? What've you been doing!?" Hiccup asks as he came into an opening with light. "They said you were dead! Everyone thinks you were eaten by..."

Hiccup's voice trailed off as they stepped out of the tunnel and into the light. Rapunzel gasped sharply as she sees the site.

There were dragons everywhere. Everywhere they turned, another dragon came out of nowhere. They flocked like schools of fish, flying in dozens of different formations, some of them wrestling another dragon to the ground with playful bites and scratches.

Valka and her dragon were hanging from a rocky overhang, and when Hiccup and Rapunzel saw her, they jumped for just a moment before relaxing again.

"This is where you've been, for twenty years?" Hiccup asked. He sounded breathless in awe and shock.

Valka nodded.

"You've been rescuing them," Hiccup breathed.

Valka nodded again, this time, smiling.

Rapunzel breathed in sharply. "Unbelievable," she whispered, shaking her head. Hiccup picked up the dragon traits of his mother all this time.

"You're not upset?" Valka asked.

"What?" Hiccup asked. "No. I mean...I don't know. It's a bit much 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."

"Oh," Valka said, and she laughed. Her dragon lowered her to the ground, and she made her way toward Hiccup and Rapunzel. "At least I'm not boring...right?" she said.

"Well," Hiccup began, "I suppose there is that...one...specific...thing."

She looked from Hiccup to Rapunzel again, this time letting her eyes linger on Rapunzel for longer. "Who is this?"

"I'm Rapunzel." Rapunzel greets her new mother-in-law with a small chuckle, no idea how to approach this, and brushed her hair with her hand.

"We met a few years ago. She sort of...kidnapped me." Hiccup did his best to explain, causing Valka to look shocked at the explanation.

"It makes more sense in context," Rapunzel promises. "I thought he broke into my home to kidnap me."

"It'll make sense when we get to the full story." Hiccup explains to her. "But long story short, she's my wife."

"Oh!" Valka sees and looks at the ring in her hand. Valka turned from her daughter-in-law to her son, and then back to her. "Well, you two will have to tell me about that whole story sometime."

She looked desperately like she wanted to pull Hiccup and Rapunzel both into an embrace, but she was refraining, for whatever reason. Maybe she was nervous. Making sense. Learning your son is here, married, and she doesn't even know everything else.

"We do," Hiccup agreed.

Valka scanned their surroundings once more and looked back at her children, now young adults. "Do you like it?" she asked nervously.

"I don't have the words," Hiccup said in awe.

At the same time, Rapunzel said, "I don't know what to say."

"Oh, he's beautiful!" Valka said in amazement to Toothless as he rubbed against her hand, his tongue flopping out of his mouth. "Oh, incredible!" Valka said and looked at Hiccup. "May I?"

Hiccup lets her do whatever and stood out of her way.

Toothless pressed against her and rolled over on his back, his head in her lap, and counted his scales? "Oh, he's amazing. He could be the last of his kind. Oh, and look!" Valka said, excitedly. "He's your age!"

Hiccup looked to Rapunzel. Wondering how she was able to discover that by his scales. "Wow."

Valka then boned her head, toothless copying her and showing his retractable teeth. "And retractable teeth?! How did you manage to..." Her voice trailed off, and Hiccup spoke.

"I found him in the woods." Hiccup said. "He was...um...shot down, and wounded." Hiccup put his hands behind his back and nodded as if trying to reassure himself.

Valka looked up at him and stepped away from Toothless, towards another dragon Rapunzel had noticed when they walked in. "This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Drago Bludvist's iron traps," she said sadly. Without waiting for Hiccup to respond, she walked towards another maimed dragon. "This Raincutter had her wing sliced open by razor netting," she said.

They couldn't imagine something like that happening to their dragons, but they've had a few cases like that back at Corona. This is why they made special doctors to treat dragons. The thought was almost too horrifying. Rapunzel beckoned to her dragon and Serenity licked her cheek. Rapunzel never wanted anything to happen to her dragon.

Valka walked towards one last dragon. This particular dragon's eyes were clouded over and foggy. "And this poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare, and then left to die alone, and scared." And what of this?" She asked as she kneeled to Toothless' fin. "Did Drago or his trappers do this, too?"

Hiccup then laughed awkwardly at the story he has to explain. "Heh, well, the crazy thing is...I'm actually the one who shot him down. Hey, it's...it's okay, though!" he promised when he saw Valka's confused expression. "He got me back. Right, bud?" Toothless cooed in agreement. "You couldn't save all of me, could you?" Hiccup said. "You just had to make it even! So...peg leg!" Hiccup lifted his leg off the ground, his prosthetic in full view.

Toothless flipped Hiccup up in the air so that the boy landed on his back, and Hiccup leaned against Toothless' neck, rubbing his head.

Valka smiled nervously. "What did your father think of your Night Fury friend?" she asked, motioning to Rapunzel's dragon and then to Toothless. "And your dragon-loving wife?"

"Well, I didn't tell him at first." Hiccup confessed. "I ran away when I was chosen to kill a dragon, and that's how I met Rapunzel. And when he found me again, he didn't take the news very well."

Valka sighed and knew that was going to be the case. "Trust me, I know what you mean." She then stood up and sighed. "I thought I could change them, but some people are incapable of change. Some of us...we're just born different."

She sighed and glanced back at the ground, a distant look in her eyes. "Berk was a land of kill or be killed," she said and remembered what Berk used to be like, back before Hiccup brought peace between people and dragons.

All except for Berk.

"But I believed peace was possible," Valka went on, and she sighed again. "It was a very unpopular opinion," she murmured under her breath. "Then, one night, a dragon broke into our house, finding you in your cradle. I rushed to protect you. But...what I saw...was proof of everything I believed. This was not a vicious beast, but an intelligent, gentle creature, whose soul reflected my own. Your father came running in at that moment. "He told me to run. The dragon tried to defend itself, and...I suppose he saw me as one of their own."

"And he took you," Hiccup finished.

"You and your father nearly died that night...all because I couldn't kill a dragon." Valka was sorry to admit.

Hiccup nodded, sighing and seeing who he got it from. "Runs in the family."

The conversation was growing depressing, so Rapunzel decided it was time to change the subject. "How did you two survive?"

Valka's features brightened. "Oh, Cloudjumper never meant to harm us," she said, walking towards the cliffside. "He thought we belonged here. In the home of the great Bewilderbeast!"

Looking over the side of the cliff they see a huge, monstrous, white dragon rise. Its tusks were as white as snow, the ends were sharp, but not pointy. They gasped at it, smiles growing even bigger.

This creature was incredible and large. Very large. It had large spikes on its back, and there were more spines on its head that seemed to match that of the jagged ice cave, and Valka's mask.

"The Alpha species," Valka explained as she and her mother walk ahead of the two towards the Dragon. "One of the very last few that still exist. Every nest has its queen but this is the king of all the dragons! With his icy breath, this graceful creature built our nest. A safe haven for dragons everywhere."

"Wait, that's the ice spitter?" Hiccup asked.

"He's the one responsible for all the destruction?" Rapunzel asks as they make their way toward him.

"He protects us," Valka said, almost defensively. "We all live under his care and his command. All but the babies, of course."

"What do you mean?" Rapunzel asked.

Valka nodded towards the Bewilderbeast, and when Rapunzel looked, she saw what she was talking about. Baby dragons were climbing all over him, biting at his horns and sliding down his tusks, growling happily all the while.

"They listen to no one," Valka finished with a chuckle.

The Bewilderbeast gently blew the baby dragons off his face and then turned in Rapunzel, Hiccup, and Valka's direction. He studied them carefully with his old, wise eyes.

"I've lived among them for twenty years," Hala said. "Learning their ways, discovering their secrets."

The Bewilderbeast blew frost towards Hiccup and Rapunzel, and it collected in their hair. Valka ad Hala laughed while Hiccup and Rapunzel desperately tried shaking the snow out of their scalps.

"He likes you two," Valka said.

"Wow," Hiccup breathed.

"Yeah," Rapunzel said for lack of better words.

Valka turned back in their direction. "You two must be hungry."

Rapunzel thought about it, and then, she realized just how hungry she was. "Um, yeah."

"Yeah," Hiccup agreed with a small shrug of his shoulders. "We could eat."

"Good!" Valka said, almost excitedly as she strolled away and smiled back at the two of them. "It's feeding time!"