Hiccup was just announced to be the one to kill the Monstrous Nightmare.

Yep, he's thrilled.

And still determined to leave.

He's back in his house right now, quickly piling some things into a basket.

Food for him that's easily preserved (finding Toothless food shouldn't be a problem) some warmer clothes for when the weather gets really nasty.

And a few extra bits and pieces, spare ones, just in case something happens to the tail fin.

There. That ought do it for now, everything else they need is still at the Cove.

He then started cleaning his room up a bit, pondering whether or not to leave a note.

And since he was so busy, he didn't notice a pair of bright amber eyes staring at him through his window.
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The amber-eyed raven watched the boy for a moment more before heading back to her master.

She flew rather slowly, looking down at the villagers heading to their homes for the night.

A harsh but quiet caw came from her beak.

She was rather disgusted with them, they were so blind.

How could they be so cruel to another living creature?

And how dense were they?!

They treated that boy horribly and for what reason?

She felt her claws curl up in anger until she felt them clink against her dark brown harness.

She glanced down to her chest and saw the purple emblem in the center, the moonlight glinted off the blue, pointed star in the middle of it.

She looked back up and saw the Great Hall of the village come into view.

She shook her head lightly as she landed on the roof of the building.

Humans could be so complicated sometimes...

"Shadow..."

She turned her head and looked to the side below her.

A girl, about eighteen, was covered in a dark purple cloak with a black trim.

The girl uncovered the hood to reveal short blonde hair and bright violet eyes that nearly glowed in the dark.

"The last few people just left the Hall. Is Hiccup already headed to the Cove?"

The raven, Shadow, flew down to land in front of her master.

But it wasn't claws that touched the ground, it was paws.

The raven... became a wolf.

Midnight black in color, her harness adjusted to the transformation.

It remained a perfect fit.

She stood in front of her girl before locking eyes with her.

"He's finished packing by now. He'll be headed there any minute."

"Okay. I'll get things settled in the Hall, you get the dragons from the Kill Ring."

"And Toothless?"

"If I catch up with him, Toothless should be transported with him. Their bond is strong enough for that. The other villagers can be summoned once they're in the hall. Whether they like it not they're bound to Hiccup as well. You'll have to touch each dragon separately though. And hurry--"

The girl brought a yellow, glowing rose from out of her robe.

"The charm won't last forever."

The girl knelt down to Shadow's level and they touched their noses together briefly.

Then Shadow peeled off, silently but quickly making her way down to the Kill Ring.

The girl stood back up and held the rose stem in both hands before snapping it in half.

There. The charm was in effect now.

She glanced around before noticing the wind has stopped.

The birds flying above her head stopped as well.

Time has momentarily stopped, for everyone but her and Shadow.

She turned and started running fast, faster than a normal human, to the exact spot she knew Hiccup probably was.
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Well, she was right.

He was halfway to the Cove, meaning Astrid was likely already there by now.

She stood in front of him, studying his face for a moment.

It... was wrong.

She knew what he would become.

Strong, brave... the Chief.

Yet, his face was right now downtrodden.

Depressed...

Clearly, this was the only way.

At least to him.

Well, she's had enough of waiting.

Time to take matters into her own hands.

At least... for the time being.

She touched his forehead with two fingers before he disappeared in a cloud of white light. She looked ahead of her to where the Cove was and saw a similar, fainter glow of the light.

She turned and ran back.

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When she arrived at the Great Hall, Shadow was already there. She was sitting in front of a line of dragons that were situated in the back, still and silent.

Toothless was among them, at the very end of the line-up. 

Hiccup was standing on the complete opposite end.

"Good girl!"

Shadow wagged her tail before stretching out her legs, watching her girl approach Hiccup.

Well. Time for the rest.

This time she took both of her thumbs and laid them against either side of his forehead.

The glow came again, this time forming many shapes around them until the entire village population was in the building.

Astrid was closest to Hiccup. Then the other teens, Gobber, and Stoick. The rest of the Berkians were behind them.

She bit her lip and looked at the rose again, the petals were rapidly dying.

The effect of the charm would wear off any time now. 

She crammed the rose back into her cloak.

This could get a little complicated...

Shadow stood up and took a rigid, guarding stance in between the dragons.

She may be smaller but hopefully they would still listen to her.

It's too risky for her to change into one of them, it could just make things worse once the villagers see them.

She could feel the last of the petals withering away so she went to join Shadow. It's likely the first thing the villagers would see anyways.

After the last petal withered away, Hiccup was the first to regain mobility.

He staggered at first like he was still walking before slightly jumping in shock and turning around.

Okay, so he saw the villagers. That... was kind of a normal thing for him.

But when he saw a stranger and a wolf is when he dropped the basket and his mouth flew open. His eyes darted from the girl to the wolf and then when he saw the dragons his obvious confusion and shock became worse.

But she didn't say anything, merely held a silent finger to her lips. As expected, as soon as he saw Toothless, his first instinct was to move towards him.

But she just held up a hand, telling him to stop just as everyone else in the room came alive again.

She glanced at the rose before letting it drop to the floor, it was useless now.

As soon as it touched the floor, it disappeared into thin air.

There was silence for a moment before there was an uproar.

There was shouting, of course there was, they were confused out of their minds!

"...DRAGONS!"

And... there it was.

All villagers turned their heads toward the dragons who were just gauging their surroundings.

But when the dragons saw the vikings, growls came from their throats. 

All but Toothless. His eyes were locked on Hiccup's.

"HEY!"

Shouts and growls stopped immediately. It seems their guests were just now being noticed.

"Uh... hi. My name is--"

"Who in Thor's name are you--"

"QUIET!"

She cleared her throat, her stare becoming blank.

"I was going to say that my name is Ash. And... I need to show you something."

All eyes were glaring at her but she made her way to the front of the crowd to stand near Hiccup. Shadow was close at her side, daring anyone to make a move towards them.

Once she reached Hiccup, she stood beside him. She gave him a quick reassuring look before addressing the crowd once more.

"Alright look. I'm not from here which probably seems obvious to, hopefully, all of you. But I'm not here to hurt anyone, I just need you all to understand something. And if all goes to plan, what happens in the next hour and forty-ish minutes should impact any future decisions."

All eyes now turned to Stoick.

His glare toward Ash didn't break. But she just glared right back.

"I speak the truth. If I was going to hurt you, I would have done it already."

"...if you step one toe out of line you will  face consequences!"

A small smirk spread across her face.

"Noted."

"Now what's so important?"

She walked back over to the dragons, raising scared and angry looks from the villagers.

But the dragons weren't focusing on them.

All of them, including Toothless, were now focused on the wolf that was holding their attention.

Ash bent down and reached into a small leather bag and grabbed some kind of glass orb and a white, glowing rose.

She held the orb for a moment before letting it go to levitate by itself.

Ignoring the gasps of those behind her, she held the rose in both hands before bending the stem.

She turned back to the crowd.

"Oh, just the past month or so."