The two friends walked through the forest, headed back toward home. They had their weapons out and ready, and Flame was on high alert.

"Were gonna have to be more cautious from now on." Dusty said to Thyra

"Yeah, especially since we don't know how many of them there were." Thyra nods.

Flame gave Thyra a small shove, giving a small squawk.

"I'm glad I left Flame with you." he said, giving the Nadder a scratch.

"Yeah, two guys might have been too much for me to handle. I really haven't fought for a while, so I was sloppy. And you handled your guy well?"

"Mostly, he caught me off guard and unprepared, I had no warning. I was able to break his grip and put some distance between us. He threw a daggur at me and I fell to the ground to dodge, he charged me and I dropped my bow, and drew my sword. When he came back, I disarmed him, and he put a good punch and kick on my chest and stomach. He drew a daggur and was about to kill me, when I was able to grab my bow and an arrow, and shot him through his neck. Blood was gushing like a fountain." He said recalling the skirmish. "You?"

"They technically caught me on guard, cause I was sparring with the tree, but I wasn't paying attention too much. Then I heard a twig snap, so I spun around to find them. I tried to fight them off as long as I could with my staff and the dagger, but they managed to get my staff away. Not that I stopped fighting, of course. I was trapped against a tree when Flame burst out and saved me, let's just say the other guy suffered a horrifying death. One he deserved. Eret managed to nick my neck, as you know, but that's really about it, apart from a few scratches." She replies, shrugging as she hits some bushes with her staff in frustration. "I really need to get up to scratch with my fighting."

"I can help you with that, remember I won many tournaments, but I'm a little off since I haven't done it in years." he offers

"True. All I need is a little practice though, then I'll be back up to speed." Thyra replies.

"We can do that once we get back to camp, but I think that's the beach ahead of us." he says looking into the near distance.

"Yeah." Thyra agrees. "We've been out for most of the day, and I'd say we have a pretty good idea of the island." She shrugs.

"Remind me to update the map, and would you look at that, another ship." he says pointing at a rotten hull on the shore.

"Add the dead bodies to it," Thyra jokes, before following his gaze. "This must be a hot point for ships. Should we go check it out?"

"Yeah...but...it looks familiar." he says looking through his memory.

"Yeah? You think?" Thyra asks curiously.

"Help me up." he requests standing next to the hull.

Thyra shrugs, but does so, hauling him up. "Hopefully that leg of yours heals soon."

Dusty hauls himself onto the boat, "I'll be fine, now give me your hand." He says reaching down to her.

Thyra reaches up, and let's him pull her up. "Right. Another ship to explore..."

"Let's hope we can find something useful." He says looking around the ship, but sees nothing on deck.

"Alright, let's head below." Thus suggests, Flame landing next to them.

"Flame, keep watch, but stay hidden." Dusty says before heading below deck.

They open a hatch, and step down into the darkness, eager to find something useful.

"Ok, a good number of crates, some barrels, and looks like two chests. We'll save the chests for last." he says opening a barrel, only to find it empty.

"Great start, " Thyra jokes, before opening a crate. "And...more rope. Pretty good condition though."

"You never know when you might need it." Dusty says prying open a crate, to find a hatchet.

"Well, that's true, " Thyra nods, dropping the rope over her shoulder and prying open a barrel. "Is that...mead?"

Dusty peers over, "Looks like it. But don't drink it, who knows how long it's been sitting here." He said walking over to another crate.

There scoffs with a grin. "I'm not stupid...I was thinking we could feed it to Irritation!" she laughs, abandoning the barrel and opening a crate.

"I don't think having a drunk dragon is a good idea, and it could kill her." he says opening the crate.

"Aren't you a softy!" she laughs, examining the contents of the crate she opened. "Well, I guess you can say we have plenty of rope now?" she drops it to the floor.

"Would you look at this." Dusty says as he peers into the crate. A smile creeping across his face.

She abandons the empty barrel she'd opened and walks over to look into the crate curiously.

Dusty pulls out a small anvil, a hammer, and a few scraps of metal.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but this is way too good to be true, Dusty. There has to be a catch!" Thyra sighs. "There's no way there won't be one."

"Your right about that, but the only thing we haven't found is some decent food." he says setting the components back in the crate. "And we still have to check the chests and captains cabin."

"Sorry to break your spirit, but unless we witness a boat crash up onto the rocks in front of our eyes, I don't think we'll find any non-rotting food."

As she finishes a small smak can be heard from the hatch as something fell into the ship.

"If it's a fish I'll feed myself to the Night Furies." Thyra mutters, spinning around.

Sure enough, they found a big tuna, with their small terror.

"Alright, where are they?!" Thyra jokes.

The Terror gave her a 'what are you talking about' look, before shrugging and flying off.

"I think you hurt her feelings." Dusty said from the crate he was opening..

"Yeah, but she's a dragon, she'll soon get distracted and get over it." Thyra laughs, opening a crate. "A bunch of axe handles."

"Replacements or firewood." Dusty said opening his crate, to find two pristine wood and metal shields. " Thyra, remember when you said you were getting suspicious?"

"Yeah? I still stand by that." She responds.

"Yeah, come look at this." Dusty requests as he backs off

Thyra comes over to see what he's looking at. "Alright. Shields."

"Really good ones two, and in pristine condition." he says pulling one up, and they noticed that they didn't have a crest or symbols.

"Well, at least they're not from the Romans." Thyra runs a hand over a shield. "These could be pretty useful."

"I've never seen this type of metal before, and you fell how light the shield is, it's like there's no metal on here whatsoever." he says examining the shield.

"And just look at the condition! How everything is placed. I think the creator took a lot of care! But why go to so much effort on a shield?" Thyra holds one in her hands.

"I don't know, people do many things for many reasons. Hey, what's that on the bottom of the crate? Is that a piece of paper?" he says peering in.

"Maybe it's a signed note." Thyra jokes.

"Maybe they were selling them, that could be from the creator." He said picking it up.

"True." Thyra shrugs, wanting to know what it says.

Dusty read the note. "Apparently these were made by a man named Hiccup Haddock III

"Poor guy." Thyra winces, "Must have been hard to prove himself with a name like that. I guess this did the trick, though."

"They believe names like that scares off knomes and trolls, like their own viking demeanor wouldn't do that." he said with a laugh.

"Ha. They're not the most civil people, " Thyra shrugs. "What else does it say?"

"Apparently these are copies of his actual shield, and he makes them by hand and sells them to the townspeople and abroad."

Thyra whistles. "Impressive. He must be an inventor. I have to say it would be a shame to leave them here..." Thyra trails off, feeling a trigger. She pushes it.

"Whoa..." she gasps, now holding a crossbow. "This is...wow." she knocks one of her bolts, and fires at the wall. "Deadly accurate, too! That settles it, he's an inventor!"

"And it looks like it's quicker to reload, easier to aim, and lighter."

"This is my dream weapon!" she laughs, running a hand over it's side.

"I think I'll stick with the shield, I'm better with a bow, and how do you make that a shield again?"

Thyra pauses, taking a few seconds. "Uh...there we go, " she manages to put it back together.

"Well, that's an amazing invention. And we still haven't checked the chests."

"If this guy made this, then I wonder what else he made?!" Thyra exclaims, putting the shield over her shoulder.

"You wanna check the chests? I'll take the captain's cabin.

"Alright, shout if you find anything, " Thyra nods, taking off towards the chests, and making quick work to open the first one. She cranks it open, and peers in.

"Interesting." she murmurs, pulling out a note. "It's by the same guy, Hiccup, and...it has a list of items he wants, and items he traded." she lifts out an object. "This must be a spyglass." she looks through it, nodding before picking out a wooden container. "And this was the squid ink he wanted..." her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Well, look at that..." she pulls out a stack of papers. "On dragons? Who would bother?" she sifts through them, and although they're only on the common dragons, there is a lot of information.

"Did you know a Monstrous Nightmare LIKES to have its horns bent to the ground?" she calls out to Dusty.

"Where you getting that from?" he calls back, trying to unjam the captain's door.

"There's all this stuff, basically dedicated to Hiccup!"

"Seriously?" he called back.

"Yeah, most of It seems to be coming from him, but a few things are for him. This is only the first chest, though."

She heard a crash as Dusty kicked the captain's door in. "Captain, I would like to report a mutiny." he said with a small laugh as he entered. To find nothing but a small chest. "Hey I got another chest in here." he called to Thyra.

"Yeah? And I got another lense..." she holds it up to the light. Its markings were different, but it was the same shape.

"Another lends?, like the one we found on the Berserker ship?"

"It's the same, only the markings are different." Thyra opens the other chest. "And...this other chest is empty."

"Well come and open this one." He says as he poked his head out of the cabin.

Thyra grabs the stuff and approaches, using her dagger to force the lid open.

And surprisingly, it was empty.

"Well that just sucks doesn't it?" he asked

"Yeah, but we got these shields." Thyra shrugs. "And the lense, we can use them both for target practise!" Thyra laughs.

"Yeah, true." he says as he walks out of the cabin, and hits an oddly loose board.

"For the love of Thor that hurt." he said looking down at the board. And noticed something. "Hey, there's something under this." he says kneeling down next to it.

"Yeah?" Thyra asks, running and stomping on the boards tip, sending it flying. "There we go! Now, let's see what we've got..."

"Another crate? Why would you hide a crate?" He says pulling it up. "Well, it's full, that's for sure." prying it open."Your kidding me." he says in disbelief as he opened it.

The crate was full of leather.

"Leather?" Thyra mutters. "Well, at least we can use this."

"I can use this for a number of things, and we might need Flame to help carry this stuff." he said looking at all the equipment they found.

"Yeah, there's no way we can lift this."

"Call him, I'll get the stuff together." as places as many items as he can into another chest.

Thyra walks out towards the hatch they originally came down. She lets out a sharp whistle. "Flame? C'mere, boy!" An answering squawk comes from above, before Flame appears down through the hatch. "Hey there. Think you can help us with this leather? It's too heavy for us." Thyra asks, smiling.

Flame gives a small squawk before grabbing the leather and taking off

And putting a bit of confusion on the people outside.

"Did you see that? The dragon has a crate!" said one voice

"I don't care! Shoot it down!" said another

Before the friends can register what's happening, Flame takes an arrow to the leg, and let's out a painful roar.

"Flame!" Dusty yells, grabbing his bow and climbing to the deck.

Thyra is quick to follow, drawing her regular crossbow and knocking a bolt. "What the hell?!"

Half a dozen men are standing on the beach, all shooting arrows at Flame, not noticing the two teens on the ship. They have the hunters crest on their shields.

"Oh no you don't." Dusty mutters as he knocks and fires an arrow, hitting a Hunter in the chest.

Thyra growls through her teeth and fires a bolt at another, hitting him in the neck.

The leader of the group was his men to down, And turned to the ship, seeing Duty and Thyra on the deck.

"Forget the dragon, their are our slaves! Get them" He ordered to the other three men.

Thyra is quick to fire another arrow, the leader barely managing to lift his shield to block it.

But Dusty shot right after her, and the leader couldn't lower his shield in time to stop the arrow from burying in his knee.

He yelled in pain as the other men finally shot their arrows at the two teens, who duck below the railing to avoid them.

"Now is a good time to test these out." Thyra mutters, pulling her shield off her shoulder and readying it, but keeping it in its form.

"Give me supporting fire, I'm going close up." Dusty said shouldering his bow and pulling out his Sword and shield.

Thyra nods, transforming her shield into the crossbow and knocking a bolt.

They duck below the railing again to dodge another golly of arrows, And Dusty drops to the ground, shield and sword up.

"Look at this boys, the slave wants to tussle with us." one of the men mocked.

"He probably doesn't even know which is which." another said as they dropped their boss and two pulled out swords, and the other pulled out an axe.

Thyra rises above the railing and fires a carefully aimed bolt that pieces through one guys side.

"We're not going back." She shouts, placing another bolt in place. "Go, when you're ready." She nods quietly to Dusty, getting ready for cover fire.

"How cute." A man snarls.

"They think they're so tough." Another spits.

"No, they think they get a choice." The leader smirks. "They don't."

"Your the one who doesn't have a chance, so I'm giving you the chance to throw down your weapons." Dusty yells to them

"We'll never surrender to a bunch of slaves!" the leader yells, "Charge!"

The two remaining men rush at Dusty. He dodges an axe aimed at his head, and uses his sword to block the sword aimed for his throat.

Thyra shoots one in the thigh, slowing him down, and allowing Dusty to run him through with his sword.

The man with the axe, seeing his comrade fall, throws his axe at Dusty, who knocks it aside with his shield and into the hull of the ship. The man draws a daggur and runs at Dusty full force, Dusty grabs his daggur, and like a throwing knife, throws it at the man, putting it in his neck.

Thyra jumps down from the ship as the only man still standing, the commander, hobbles towards Dusty with a battle cry, his knee preventing him from moving any quicker. Thyra pulls out a throwing knife and throws it at the captain's other leg, just as Dusty slams him back, and it makes its mark just below the knee.

"Let's just keep this one alive, for now." Thyra says as the commander falls to the ground in pain. She rips his sword out of his grasp and chucks it in the sand. "I think we'll have a lot of fun with this guy!"

Dusty walks up and rips Thyra's throwing knife out of the commanders leg. "Hey, you might need this," he said tossing it to her.

She nods with a smirk, passing it from hand to hand. "Do you want to check on Flame? I've got this guy." she gives the commander a deadly grin.

"Flame should be at camp right now, and all I saw was an arrow hit his leg. I think he's alright." he looks back at the bloody mess behind them,"I'll search them while you deal with our friend, you need anything in particular?"

Thyra nods. "Maps. Identity. Arrows, bolts. The usual."

"You got it, he's all yours." he said turning to the mess.

Thyra grins and crouches in front of the commander. "Who are you? I'm letting you get the easy way out." but the man just stares back without speaking. "Very well, " Thyra shrugs and puts the throwing knife through his bicep. "Name. Now."

"Hey, check him for more weapons before you get started, these hunters are tricky." Dusty calls from a body.

"Good point." She quickly recovers three daggers from his sleeves, a miniature sword of sorts from his back, and a throwing knife in his boot. Said throwing knife soon becomes buried in the man's foot. "I won't ask again." she growls as the man squirms in pain. "I'm not some defenseless slave, you know!" she exclaims, pulling out her dagger, and holding it to his neck.

"Thugory." he spits through his teeth. "Thugory the thunderous. And that's all you're getting out—" the man cuts himself off with a scream. Thyra had buried her dagger in his shoulder. "Yeah, Eret, father of Eret tried that. It didn't work out well for him!" she exclaims.

The man's eyes widened at that last statement. "Captain Eret's dead! Your gonna pay for this!"

"Pay? He's the one who tried to behead me. I think it was a suitable punishment." Thyra smirks, pinning the guy down. "Why did you come here for us? You are dragon trappers. And who told you we escaped?"

"I'm not answering to—" the man is once again cut off.

"To a slave? yeah, you're about to." she stabs his ear. "Where's your ship? And how did you get here so quickly?"

"Your not getting anything out of me! You just wait till Erets son finds you, you'll rue the day you were born!" He spat blood into Thyra's face as he finished.

"Mhmm, " she laughs freely. "A nice beheading will just finish him off too. I can go on like this all day, you can't!" she drags her knife down the length of his leg, drawing a heap of blood.

"S-ship's...behind...sea stack." Thugory gasps through the pain.

"Hey Thyra, get anything out of him?" Dusty asks as he walks back over.

"Well, Thugory here has only managed to tell me his stupid name, and that his ship is behind a sea stack." she rolls her eyes. "You?"

"I got our bolts and arrows back, and found this." He holds up a small bottle.

"What is that?" she asks, before turning to Thugory. "What's that?!" she digs the knife in a little more.

"N-Nights-shade p-poison..." the man mumbles, clenching his eyes shut. "There, now we're getting results!"

"That's what I thought it was, so how about we use it on him." Dusty says with a smirk.

"Be my guest!" Thyra smirks back and gestures to the man, pulling her weapon out. "I hope it's extra painful."

"No, please don't! I'll tell you anything, but please don't put that in me!" the hunter pleads.

"Really? Anything?" Thyra scoffs. "Too late!" she grins.

"Please! I have a wife and a kid on the way! Please, I'll tell you anything you want!" he pleads again

"Who would bed you?!" Thyra laughs, before scowling. "You should have thought about them before."

"Please, don't." be begs again.

"Please, don't!" Thyra mocks in a baby voice. "I have no room for mercy here. Dusty?"

Dusty hands her the bottle, "just a drop should do it."

"Just a drop." she nods, forcing Thugory's mouth open as he wails in protest. "Oops!" she grins, pouring in a quarter of the bottle.

"Great, ready to leave?" Dusty asks Thyra, as she punches the squirming hunter.

"Sure." she gets up and wipes her bloody hands on her shirt, before handing him the poison. "That was fun."

"We have to make sure to hide this. And did you have to pour a quarter of it out?" He asks taking the bottle.

"It only felt right." Thyra shrugs. "Hopefully they'll get the message."

"They will, let's just go before help arrives." He said walking toward the forest.

"Yeah, " she nods, following. "Do you think I went too easy on him?" she jokes.

"No, I think there could have been more pain and blood." Dusty jokes back

"Ha, i'll remember that for next time I torture an idiot." she smirks, flicking some blood off her dagger.

That's when a throwing knife landed in front of them, falling from directly above them.

"What the hell?!" Thyra yells looking up, to see irritation flying above them

"Huh. Thanks?" she picks up the throwing knife. "This doesn't mean I like you." she grumbles, putting her throwing knife back in its place. "I have too many to count." she laughs.

"The more the better." Dusty says back

"Gotta agree with you there!" Thyra nods.

That's when they heard a familiar growl behind them, actually two familiar growls. They spin around to face the dragons for the third time now.

"Huh." Thyra mutters, locking eyes with the blue eyed one. "You just keep showing up at random times."

"What do y'all want with us now?" Dusty asks locking eyes with the green eyed Night Fury.

The blue eyed one slowly creeps towards Thyra, eyes slitted as it moves gracefully, yet tense. It walks until it's right in front of her face, and growls. Thyra follows the Night Fury's gaze to see the dagger she still held. She chuckles sheepishly and stabs it into a tree trunk to her left, then stepped away from it. The dragon's eyes followed the movement before widening curiously. Thyra drops the staff, shield, and crossbow at her feet, and nudges them away with a swift swipe of her foot. The dragon eyes the throwing knives tucked into her belt and hisses, so one by one she pulls them out and stabs them into the dagger-tree, never breaking eye contact with the dragon. The dragon sits back, eying her silently in an unnerving way with round eyes. Thyra cocks her head to the side in wonder.

The green eyed night fury does the same, but it's eyes keep going from slits to circles. But growls at the sword on Dusty's hip. He slowly untied it, and throws it to the side. He unshouldered his bow and arrows, and sets them down, then he pulls his daggur out, earning a growl from the dragon again, before stabbing it into the ground. But he never broke eye contact. The dragon eyed him curiously.

The blue eyed dragon cocks its head to the side, mirroring Thyra. "Wow." Thyra whispers.

"Thyra, you ok?" Dusty whispers

"I'm...great. You?" Thyra whispers back, smiling at the dragon in wonder and excitement.

"I'm about to do something stupid."

"You've already done that. And for the record? Me too." Thyra slowly lifts her arm up, and the dragon eyes her hand.

"Well then we're about to do something crazy." He said lifting his hand and averting his eyes.

"Agreed." Thyra lifts her hand up, and turns her head to the side, closing her eyes and giving her full trust to the dragon, whose eyes are now wide in disbelief.

They both silently prayed that the dragons gave their trust.

The dragons eyed the hand hovering in front of them, and sniffed it. After a few tense, silent seconds, they both simultaneously lean forward, and press their noses into the open palms, purring, with one thought in mind.

We trust you.