Hiccup's P.O.V.

"Are you quite through with holding me captive?" Astrid asked irritably as she crossed her arms.

"More than through. So much, in fact, that I sent search parties for you," I tell her, leaning my back against the wall.

"What?"

"Get her outta there," I order Thork, nodding to her cell. He unlocks the door and I nod for her to follow me as I walked for the door of the dungeon. "Most of your tribe mates are out looking for you, but they should be back before sun down," I tell her. I stopped by the Meade Hall and let her come to my side before swinging my hands behind my back in sarcasm. "Can I offer you a beverage will you wait?" I ask sarcastically. She swings her ax to my neck.

"You can offer me your life," she growls. I put my finger on the blade and push it down before shaking my head.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," I click my tongue, "Such ungratefulness. Makes me wonder if I did the right thing with helping your people find you." She rolls her eyes before Tawny comes running up to me. I scoop her up and hold her on my hip before she looks at Astrid.

"Dada! Ax-lady's out!" she cheers.

"I know, I let her out. Isn't she pretty?" I said, holding her close to my chest.

"Yes, she's beautiful," Astrid said with a small, non-real roll of her eyes.

"I was talking about you," I tell her before slight fear flashed through her eyes. "Don't worry, we don't follow the usual marriage law on this island," I chuckle before walking toward the arena. I heard her sigh in relief and swallow back a laugh. "I see Berk is still pretty messed up, huh?" I say and Tawny laughs. I've told her many stories about what Berk was like before I left and she, despite her age, hated the people.

"Uh, excuse me?" Astrid's voice called as she jogged to catch up. I put Tawny down and held her hand as we continued to walk.

"Yes, M'Lady?" I said, not breaking stride as Astrid joined us.

"Berk is messed up? You guys ride dragons and hold innocent people under guard when they need help!" she snaps.

"You're not innocent!" Tawny argues.

"What?" Astrid was appalled.

"She's right. You kill dragons on your island. Killing is also known as murder. For you, murder is when someone kills a viking. For us, murder is when someone kills a viking, or dragon. So, you are not innocent. I'm proud of you, someone's been studying, huh?" I add, squatting down to hug Tawny.

"You cannot be serious. They are scaly useless monsters, who only know how to take meat," Astrid says as I stand up.

"They are living creatures who do what we do: try to survive. They're loyalty can be earned in the most memorable ways," I tell her.

"There's no way these things," she waves to the dragons around us, "are capable of being loyal to anyone. Take it from someone who knows. Dragons are like allied tribes; they only use you until you break. I suggest you get rid of them, before they get rid of you." I raised an invisible eye brow at her.

"You've never been on a dragon, have you?" I ask.

"You've never shown anyone your face, have you?" she counters.

"I've shown my villagers, I've shown my daughters, I've shown..." I trailed off in thought, "Oh, wait, that's it. Tawny, why don't you go to the arena, help Heather out, huh?" My daughter hugs my legs and waves at Astrid.

"Bye-bye, ax-lady!" she called as she ran off.

"Congratulations! Your Fire Tribe name is now Ax-lady!" I cheer, chuckling affectionately as I watched my daughter disappear.

"Not like I'm going to stay long enough to use it," Astrid said with a roll of her eyes.

"If you want to know where the rest of your tribe is, ask Leize in the forage to show you to the Great Hall. Or, you can stick around and learn about life with dragons," I say before she looks at me.

"Dad!" Avechi's terrified voice sounded before Astrid could answer. I spun around to see her running toward us. She almost collapses but I catch her and help her stand as she catches her breath.

"Calm down, Avechi, what's wrong?" I ask as she starts to breathe heavily.

"W-Wild dragons...south beach!" she pants. Astrid draws her ax.

"Stand back, this is a job for a real viking," she says before running for the beach. Toothless jumps over her and snatches her weapon from her hands. "Hey!" she snapped as he gives me the ax.

"You will go no where near those dragons," I order her with a hard tone as I give her ax to Skyla, who was passing by. I then turn to Avechi. "Lets go take a look," I say and her eyes widen.

"M-Me?" her voice was tight with shock.

"It's time you found a challenge," I tell her, "These dragons might allow you to make an unbreakable bond." I let out a whistle and Bloodpool lands next to us. "Lets fly," I say as I mount Toothless and he shoots for the beach. There was a Nadder, Nightmare, Zippleback, Gronckle, and a young Razorwhip. "So many choices," I murmur as Toothless and Bloodpool land. The dragons started growling and snarling as we slowly dismounted.

"Shhh," Avechi hissed softly as she inched toward the Razorwhip, hand outstretched.

"Turn your head away, show that you trust him," I guided as Toothless and Bloodpool distracted the other dragons.

"I'm gonna try something else, Dad," she said, looking into the dragons eyes.

"Be careful," I hiss. Avechi stopped a few feet away from the Razorwhip's nose and stood calmly, her shoulders relaxed, and her eyes firm but not challenging. The reptiles nostrils flared as he sniffed the air, tossing his head a little. He slowly crept forward and sniffed her palm before putting his nose to her skin. "Great job," I say as Toothless starts to get the dragons to leave, "What was the point of not looking away, may I ask?"

"Hopefully told him we're equals," she says, rubbing his neck as she slowly moves to his side. 

Nightfall

Avechi insisted on getting Silverblade in the arena right when we got back to the village. She'd earned his trust but hasn't been able to ride him yet, and I cannot tell you how relieved I was when I heard that. She only knows stuff about Terrors; I'm gonna make her read the book of dragons before I let her even pick a saddle. Right now, I was at the head of my table in the Meade Hall, the Hooligan tribe crowding Astrid as they checked to make sure she was okay. Stoick, Snotlout, and Astrid were sitting on my left; Heather, Scarlet, and Leize on my right. Avechi was with the younger vikings and Tawny was at the children's table. I looked at Avechi to see a male Hooligan viking, about her age, sitting next to her. She looked pretty uncomfortable, and her friends were giving him the death glare but he was just ignoring them. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could tell he was trying to flirt with her.

"Not on my watch," I mutter under my breath and make a mental note to talk to her later. "So, Stoick. What made you bring the whole tribe on a voyage?" I ask. He paused and Snotlout and Astrid exchanged a glance.

"I'm afraid our island was invaded by...I was going to say 'dragons', but now I'm thinking devils," he says and Scarlet clenched her fist.

"Stoick, as much as you can, please refrain from addressing dragons as devils," I say and he scoffs. "So, you are looking for a new home?"

"Yes," he says.

"Hm..." I trailed off in thought. 

"Chief?" I look at Heather when her voice sounds. She nods to Avechi and I see that the young man had moved closer to her.

"I know. I saw. If you've taught her anything, I trust she'll have him wincing, whenever she walks in a room, by the end of the night," I tell her.

"If he's stupid enough to keep bugging her," she chuckles. Stoick follows our gazes.

"Who? Chumhog?" he asks, "He's just flirting, what's wrong with that?"

"For one thing, he's flirting with the chief's daughter," Leize says.

"For another, he's being completely reckless," Scarlet adds, "You don't flirt with a female Flame. You court her. There's a big difference."

"Well, why don't you explain the difference," Snotlout says smugly.

"Flirting, you make your feelings too obvious. Courting, you keep them so hidden, the girl isn't even aware," Leize says. I see Astrid's eye brows furrow in thought as she turned her head away.

"And besides, if you've been teaching him to kill dragons, Avechi will kill him when he meets her new friend," I tell him.

"You have a strange way of treating guests," Astrid says.

"We don't get many, and they usually respect our way of life and rules," Heather says.