Astrid, Fishlegs, the twins, and Snotlout were waiting with their dragons on a small glacier. They had been waiting there for a while and no sign of them anywhere, and Astrid was beginning to grow worried. If Stoick and Gobber were just trying to get Hiccup and Heather back, it shouldn't have been taking this long.

"I don't like it," Astrid said at length. "They should've been back with Hiccup and Heather by now."

"I don't like it either!" Ruffnut complained, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "Eret, Son of Eret was the man of my dreams. My everything!" She threw her head back dramatically as if it would somehow emphasise her words.

Snotlout looked hurt. "But, baby, I grew facial hair for you," he said, rubbing his chin, looking pained.

Fishlegs stepped up beside Snotlout with the same expression. "Me too," he said regretfully.

"What if Drago shot them down?" Astrid said, trying to get back to the original subject. "What if they need our help? We have to find them."

"Wait, wait, what?" Fishlegs asked quickly. "But Stoick said-"

"It doesn't matter what he said if they've all been captured!" Astrid shouted back. "Come on!" Stormfly spread her wings and launched herself into the sky, and soon afterwards, the other dragons followed in suit.

Eret's ship glided over the water, chunks of ice scattered across the ocean.

"Do we go back?" one of the trappers asked.

"We've nowhere to go!" Eret shot back, holding a block of his ice to his head where Gobber had hit him. "Nothing to sell! And no heads to call our own! If we don't turn up with dragons, and fast-"

Stormfly snatched him right off the deck of the ship, and almost instantly, Eret began screaming. Astrid smiled in satisfaction.

"Careful what you wish for!" She called down to him in a sing-song tone of voice.

"Eret, Son of Eret!" trappers shouted from the ship, but to no avail. They fired bolas and arrows at them, but nothing stopped the dragon riders, and they continued flying until the ship was out of sight.

"What is this!?" Eret demanded, scrambling to grab ahold of Stormfly's leg.

"A kidnapping." Astrid answered cheerily.

"Yay!" Ruffnut cheered, moving Barf closer so she grab grab Eret's arm. "Can he ride with me!?" Ruffnut asked excitedly. "Can he? Can he...?"

Tuffnut shied away from his sister, a look of pure disgust on his face. "Ugh!" he gagged as Astrid rolled her eyes. Tuffnut was just as dramatic as his sister.

"You're gonna show us the way to Drago," Astrid said to Eret, nodding in the direction of the sky as they went.

"And help Dragon Riders sneak into Drago's camp?" Eret gasped. He let go of Stormfly's leg so that the only thing keeping him in the air was Stormfly's claws wrapped around his arm and leg. "Just kill me now!" he said.

Astrid smirked knowjg he was going to say something like that. "That can be arranged," she assured him. "Stormfly, drop it." She commanded her dragon, and Stormfly was more than happy to oblige. Eret gasped, and Stormfly released the trapper, who soon began screaming.

"Good girl!" She said, rubbing her dragon's neck in congratulations. "Now, Stormfly, fetch!" she cheered. Stormfly chirped in agreement and soared downwards towards the falling dragon trapper.

"All right!" Eret screeched. "Okay! I'll take you to Drago!" He agrees.

Stormfly snatched him up again, just before Eret hit the water. Astrid cracked her knuckles, smiling in satisfaction. "Ha, works every time," she said smoothly.

Hiccup, Heather, Hala, and Valka soared over the ocean on their dragons, the entire flock of dragon's from Valka's dragon sanctuary occupying the air behind them. Heather glanced at them, and then looked back in front of her.

This truly was amazing. Heather didn't know a whole lot about Valka, simply because Hiccup never talked about her and neither did Stoick, but Heather was beginning to really love her and Hala already, even in such a small amount of time.

Hiccup had managed to fix Toothless' connection rod by melting the metal back together and using a heavy stone as his hammer, and Heather was glad he was smart and knew how to do something like that, or else, Toothless and he would have been downed for who knows how long.

They even look and see Hala, Scarlet and Shortstuff are flying though the air doing tricks familiar to what Hiccup ad Toothless always do.

"Hey, I-I thought we were going to eat!" Hiccup called to Valka. He sounded more confused than anything; confused and a tad bit embarrassed.

Valka only chuckled. "Oh, we are!" she assured. Cloudjumper spun back around to face Toothless and Windshear, and the two dragons froze where they were in the air, their wings beating to keep them airborne.

For a moment, nothing.

And then, there was a gurgling and a bubbling sound coming from the water below them, and they looked down to watch in amazement as the Bewilderbeast rose up out of it.

Water splashed in all directions, and they were glad to be high enough in the air to not get drenched. Then, the Alpha opened his mouth, and blew fish into the air.

Heather couldn't help but gasp and gape.

Thousands upon thousands of silver, shiny fish rained down around them, and her expression must have been pretty hilarious, because Valka and Hala laughed as Shortstuff flew off of Hala's shoulder to get some food of his own as Scarlett flies around to get her own.

Windshear looked back at Heather, and Heather nodded at the dragon. Afterwards, the Razorwhip shot through the sky, gobbling as much fish as possible.

Toothless dives towards the surface of the ocean, skim the water, and come back with a mouthful of fish so big, it was enough to feed probably three Night Furies.

"And from Dragon Island," Hiccup began, gesturing to the map he had unfolded on a snowy glacier they had landed on, "I found this archipelago..." Hiccup looked up in confusion, as did Heather, and they watched as Hala and Valka drew a replica of Hiccup's map in the snow ahead of them.

Heather couldn't help but grin. Now she knew where Hiccup's artistic talents came from. Of course, she always knew they didn't come from Stoick, but it was cool seeing where they came from exactly.

"Wow," Heather breathed before she could stop herself.

"There," Valka said as she stepped back. She ruffled Heather's hair, and Heather smiled at being accepted into their family.

Then, Toothless raced past them, a large icicle caught between his teeth. He dragged it through the snow, creating an odd spiral of lines and swirls. The dragon looked so pleased with himself it was almost hilarious.

It went from almost hilarious to just plain hilarious when the Night Fury tried to let go of the icicle and it was stuck to his tongue as if glued there. Even Scarlett seemed to be embarrassed by her brother as she blasts it off him. Before rolling her eyes and dropping into the snow.

They were hovering in an updraft, smiling away as the wind blew their hair across their faces. Heather watched as more dragons jumped off the sides of cliffs, spread their wings, and got caught in the updraft as well.

It was brilliant.

Valka then hopped off Cloudjumper's back and onto another dragon's. She continued jumping gracefully from one dragon to another, almost as if she were dancing. Sne walked across Scarlet's wingspan, ruffled Hala's hair, and then slid off the dragon's back.

Cloudjumper caught her, and she glided in between Heather and Hiccup, breathing deeply. "Oh...when I'm up here, I don't even feel the cold," she said, almost dreamily. "I just feel..."

"Free," Hiccup said.

Valka smiled at them, and they smiled back. Their mother spread her hands. "This is what it is to be a dragon!" she said as if she were telling them an amazing secret.

"It's amazing." Heather said, almost giddily.

Hiccup smirked at the both of them. "It's all well and good to call yourself a dragon," he said, yanking his leg forward so that Toothless' tail fin was locked, "but can you fly?" On the last word, he leapt to his feet and ran, jumping off Toothless in one quick movement.

"Hiccup!" Hala and Valka gasped, as Heather only smiled. Hiccup was such a show off sometimes.

Before the two could have a full-blown panic attack, Hiccup spread the wings to his flightsuit, the wind caught them, and then, he was flying, gliding smoothly across the sky with Toothless right behind him.

Hala gasped before smiling at her mother, finally seeing that the woman's posture was relaxing, her once terrified expression replaced with one of awe. Heather laughed. "He's an idiot!" she said.

Valka smiled, as Cloudjumper, Scarlett and Windshear pursued Hiccup...just around the same time a small mountain of snow appeared in front of him.

"Oh no," Hiccup groaned. "Oh no...Toothless!"

Toothless was quick to catch up. He must have been expecting something to go wrong, because he was able to wrap Hiccup in his wings and barrel through the mound of snow, hitting the ground.

Valka and Heather landed their dragons around the same time Hiccup jumped out of a pile of snow, cheering. "Ha! Woo-hoo!" he exclaimed. "Man, almost!" he said, turning back to face the Night Fury. "We just about had it that time?"

Toothless sneezed, and then glared back at his rider. He swung his tail at Hiccup's legs, tripping the man just as Hiccup finally regained his footing. Hiccup fell flat on his back in the snow, as they all ran towards him, laughing.

As soon as he was standing again, half examined Hiccup's flight suit, smiling in awe. "Oh, incredible," she gasped. "You are definitely teaching me how to make one of these!"

"Well," Hiccup said, "You're not so bad yourself." He compliments his sister.

Valka moved her hand up to his cheek, and she hesitated just a moment before cupping his face in her hand. Hiccup leaned against her palm, letting out a small sigh in contentment.

"All this time, you took after me," Valka said, her smile only growing. Then, it faded as soon as it came. "And...where was I?" she murmured, sounding as though she were scolding herself. "I'm so sorry, Hiccup," she said, looking back up at her son. "Can we start over? Will you give me another chance?"

The look in his face said it all, and Heather let a faint smile spread across her face.

"We can teach you, both of you, all that we've learned these past twenty years," Valka said as Hala stepping towards Toothless. "Like..."

Hala pressed two of her fingers against Toothless' neck and massaged it in slow circles. Hidden tailfins appeared across Toothless' back, splitting his fins in two and giving him twice the number he would usually had.

"Whoa," Hiccup breathed.

Toothless looked beyond happy, and he flapped his back fins excitedly. "Now you can make those tight turns." Hala promised, this being something she learned from Scarlett years ago by accident.

Toothless, who seemed beyond thrilled by this new discovery, cooed in excitement and bounded around Hiccup in circles before finally pressing his head against his rider's hand.

"Did you know about this?" Hiccup asked as Toothless flapped his new fins once again, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his teeth sheathed.

Valka chuckled. "Every dragon has its secrets," she said, taking a step towards him again, "and I'll show them all to you."

Toothless, still excited by their new discovery, bounded around the snow and then burrowed beneath it. A lump of snow moved around, and Toothless popped back up right next to Cloudjumper, snow collecting on Cloudjumper's head. The Stormcutter turned his head, dumping the snow right back onto Toothless. Toothless shook it off and showed off his new fins to Cloudjumper, who looked unimpressed.

Valka put one of her hands on Heather's shoulder, her other hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "We'll unlock every mystery, find every last species, together! As mother, son, daughter, and daughter in law! This gift we share...it bonds us." She looked directly into Hiccup's eyes. "This is who you are, son," she said. She smiled back at Heather. "Who we are," she said. "We will change the world for all dragons! We will make it a better, safer place!"

Hiccup laughed excitedly. "Yeah!" he said. "That sounds...amazing!"

Valka closed the gap between them and hugged her son tightly. Hiccup hesitated just a moment, but then, he wrapped his arms back around his mother and buried his face against her shoulder.

Heather watched them, standing off to the side, trying not to feel awkward. After a moment, Hiccup's hand grabbed her wrist, and he yanked her into the embrace as well. Hala gave in and joined in as well, turning it into a group hug.

The action sent a short laugh through the group.

Valka's arms were as familiar as a stranger's, but at the same time, there was that feeling of safety that came with being hugged by the woman. Like the first time Hiccup hugged Heather, or like the first time she met Windshear. There was something...there. Something unmistakable yet at the same time unexplainable.

Valka pulled away before she was ready to, and the woman stared at the couple for a good few minutes before speaking. "Alright," she said. "Now tell us. How did you two find each other?"

"It's a long story," Hiccup said while waving his arms.

"Well," Valka said, "that's quite alright with me. I love long stories. Hala?"

"I'm all for it." Hala agrees.

"All right." Heather says, knowing they need to start at the beginning now.