~LITTLE HICCUP~

My father slammed the door to the Great Hall. It bounced back, not fully closing, and a sliver of light peeked between the doors. He walked, his back to me, into the Hall. "I should have known. I should have seen the signs," the chief muttered, more to himself than me.

"Dad—"

"We had a deal!"

I stumbled over my words. This was not going well. "I know...but that—that was before I...ughh, it's all so messed up," I ran my hands through my lank hair.

He turned to face me. I wished he hadn't. His piercing eyes ripped me from myself, leaving my emotions vulnerable and out in the open. My green eyes were the only thing I had inherited from him. It was hard to believe we shared anything in common, let alone the same blood.

My dad jabbed an interrogating finger at me. "So everything in the ring. A trick? A lie?" He resumed pacing. "Did he teach you? That traitor? That man, who I let into our village, our home?"

"I screwed up," I admitted, "I—I—I should have told you before now. Just—You—Take this out on me, be mad at me, but please...just don't hurt Toothless," I pleaded.

"The dragon? That's what you're worried about?" He was boiling like a hot kettle. "Not the people you almost killed?"

"He was just protecting me!" I retorted, "He's not dangerous."

"They've killed HUNDREDS OF US!" boomed my father.

"And we've killed THOUSANDS OF THEM! They defend themselves, that's all!" Rather than listening, the chief returned to his pacing, huffing and waving me off, as if it was useless to try and make me understand. "They raid us because they have to! If they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves. There's something else on their island dad...it's a dragon like—"

"—Their island? So you've been to the nest," the bearded man now whispered.

His face was inches from mine, so close I could see the beginnings of grey hairs in his lush beard. "Did I say nest?"

I backed away, but he kept advancing on me. "How did you find it?"

"No...I—I didn't. Toothless did," I mentioned, "Only a dragon can find the island."

A bout of silence formed between us, before sudden realization appeared on my dad's bushy face. He stood up to his full height of six-foot-something and his gaze became distant, as if her could see the dragon-infested island from Berk.

My stomach dropped. "Oh, no, no. No, Dad. No. Please, it's not what you think. You don't know what you're up against. It's like nothing you've ever seen." He shoved my roughly to the side, but I kept begging, kept pleading for him to believe me.

"Dad. Please. I promise you that you can't win this one." My father only pounded toward the grand wooden doors of the Great Hall. "No. Dad. No." I felt hollow—why did my dad have to be so stubborn? "For once in your life, WOULD YOU PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO ME?" I ran to him and grasped onto his arm.

"You've thrown your lot in with them, with him." His thick build and unshaven face were grim in the shadows that fell upon him. "You're not a Viking. You're not my son."

I stayed on the cold floor as my father slammed the doors behind him and called out the order to prepare the ships, feeling more useless than ever.

~HICCUP~

The prison cell was cooler than the heat of the day and I plopped myself against the bars, legs extended and eyes closed. I shifted my legs; I missed the familiar sound of metal and stone scraping together. The same Berkian guards who had taken me from the ring had taken, along with fire-sword, my most useful invention: my prosthetic leg. "Remove any items that could be used for possible escape." They they had got that down right.

The cells were located deep at the back of the Great Hall; if you didn't know it was there you might never see its insides. I myself had never done so until then. The cell had no windows, the only light source the torches lining the room. The two Vikings stood on either side of the door, facing me. I was not going to go down without a fight.

I sidled up to the wooden bars. "So, what's Stoick planning to do now that he has a Night Fury?"

The first guard, a tall, burly man (a common sight on Berk) with a thick brown beard resembling a groundhog, looked straight at me for the first time. "The dragon will be used to find the dragons' nest, now that the ships have set sail. And that's Chief to you, traitor," he returned to his post.

The door, still guarded by the Vikings, cracked open, and one green Zippleback head silently slithered in, the guards oblivious.

"Oh, I doubt your Chief will be able to make it past since he can't see past since he didn't even care enough about his own son."

The Viking's eyes flared. "How dare you speak of Stoick in such a way!" He approached my cell, as hot as the Sun itself. "He is going out there to destroy the threat that has been attacking the innocent for generations!"

I glanced over at the door, and a second green head appeared on the other side of the second guard. "Almost no one on this island is innocent! Only the few kids who have not grown up to become killers!"

The Zippleback heads smashed into the second Viking, rendering him unconscious. A head caught the guard from thumping to the floor. "You watch your mouth, boy," the First Viking warned, his voice dead calm, "or you're gonna get what's coming to you."

Another head poked from behind the door, this time a girl with blue eyes and a blonde braid. She gestured to continue stalling, but I was already talking. "Are you sure about that?" I asked, "Because I could say the same to you."

A hammer fell down on the Viking's shielded head, and the guard slumped down to the floor.

Astrid's gaze was to the guard for a moment before sliding up to my face. Little Hiccup and the rest of the recruits rushed in, shuffling with the guard's keys and unlocking the cell.

"Hope we didn't keep you too long," she smiled, swinging her hammer over her shoulder.

"Well you took long enough! From the look in his eyes, he was about to turn me into chopped Viking for lunch!" I hopped over to my metal leg, tying it on, then turned to Little Hiccup. "So what's the plan—" I stood up, "leader?"

He boy looked from teen to teen to me. "I'll tell you one the way," he said, and I did as I followed him out of the Great Hall and into the sunlight outside.

~ ~ ~

Hey guys! I just realized The Friendship has 2.8K!!!! That's like, so close to 3K!!!! I'm almost at 3K people!!!!!!! All right, I'm good now, I just had to process that. Well, thanks guys! I'm not going to say anything deep or meaningful until I hit that milestone though, which is good for me because I have to go over my lines for this history skit I have to do (Trench warfare. Diseases, terrible living conditions, big rats, etc.).

Anyway, I think I need to create a writing schedule, because I haven't been doing well on that front for the past while. This makes me sad because I don't want to disappoint any of you. I'm going to make this story my main focus until it is C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E! COMPLETE! WHOOO!!! Lol, we'll see how that works out. I'll probably update Fridays or Saturdays, which means Saturday/Sunday for some of you who are over 12 hours ahead of me!

So...almost at 3K, check...need to create a writing schedule, check...what else...Oh yeah!

If you haven't voted on your favourite dragon, please do so! You might see it in my other work! Don't vote on this chapter though. If you want to vote, go to the table of contents and click A/N: New Dragons and comment there! You have lots of time since Lost and Alone is not my main focus. Aghh, my foot's asleep. Um, yeah, vote while you can! Unless it doesn't matter to you, in which case that is also fine. :D

I think that's it... yup, that's it! See ya next Saturday!

-TGD xoxo