━━ chapter five
goodbye for now

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    ━━Sometimes, Valkyrie wondered whether she should have been born with wings. Holding outher arms and letting the wind rush past them, she couldn't help but wish she had wings of her own. She had Zephyr, of course━he was her pair of wings━but she still wondered what it would be like to be a dragon herself; to see the world from Zephyr's eyes instead of on his back. From beside him. But she was human. She will always be human, and she had to live with the fact that she was plummeting straight to the ground and couldn't fly herself out of there.

    But Valkyrie closed her eyes, and let her trust fall upon Zephyr to catch her before she hit the water━and when she felt a set of claws grab her foot, her eyes snapped open. Grinning up at Zephyr, he tilted his head back at her, managing a twisted dragon-grin of his own. He flipped her back over and onto her saddle, and Valkyrie gave him a hug around the neck, "Well done, boy..."

    They shot back up to the others, and Valkyrie flicked her braid off her shoulder to say, try and beat that. Hiccup shook his head, amused. "Good job, guys," he said as she returned to a flying pace beside him.

    Valkyrie sent a quick smug look towards Astrid, who rolled her eyes. (You know, the usual). Snotlout scoffed, "Oh, please, you make it seem like it's so hard to fall and let your dragon catch you. You're all so dramatic."

    Val arched a brow, and she tilted her head in unison with her dragon━a matching set of piercing gazes. "Oh, and I suppose you could do better, Snotlout?"

    Hiccup winced, "Uh━actually, I was thinking that Fishlegs━"

    Snotlout leaned forward on Hookfang and said, "I know I could do better. Watch this━!"

    And like that, he slid off his saddle. The others watched, incredulous, as Hookfang continued on flying without even noticing. The twins shared nervous looks, "So ..." began Tuffnut, "should we mention something to Hookfang, or━?"

    "Let me sleep on it," muttered Ruff.

    Astrid rolled her eyes, "Hey!" she snapped her fingers at Hookfang, and he glanced at her. Pointing down, she said, "Hookfang, get him━" the dragon's eyes widened, and he let out a squawk of realisation.

    Shooting down after his rider, Hookfang dived towards Snotlout who shouted, "Really not feeling the trust!"

    Just in time, Hookfang caught his rider━scooping him up with his head and Snotlout clung onto his horns. Valkyrie winced as they kept on falling, and she heard his shouts, "Agh! Coming in too hot━AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" they crash landed right through the roof of a house ... Mildew's house.

    "Oh, wonderful..." grumbled Valkyrie.

    Hiccup grimaced, "Something tells me we're gonna hear about this ..."

   They did hear about it. Mildew wasted absolutely no time in telling Stoick all about the dragon and his obnoxious rider that crashed through his roof, "Not just once, but also twice!" Valkyrie was back to thinking that maybe she should have let Snotlout and the twins knock Mildew off the cliffs by accident.

    Slipping in back home quietly through the back door, Valkyrie tried her best to sneak away before her father and mother could notice. She shushed Zephyr and led him carefully into her chambers, and she almost made it before━ "Valkyrie, there you are!"

    She closed her eyes with an annoyed sigh, "Odin's britches," turning around, she gave her father a tight smile. "Hey, Dad!"

    "Great to see you back from your dragon training," he said, and Valkyrie held her breath in knowing what was coming. "Just in time for your turn at boot night━!" he gestured to his and her mother's boots that waited by the door.

    Val's shoulders slumped, and she whined, "Why can't Asrifth take them out this time? Or Hott, or Mak, or Erik━Erik got away with it last time! He should do it this time━" he arched a brow at her and she let out an annoyed, "━ugh! Fine━" and stormed towards the stinking boots at the door.

    Picking them up in her hand, Valkyrie held her nose, ignored her brothers jeering from behind her, and kicked the door open. The cool Berk air hit her for a few moments as she chucked the boots out the front to air out. As she did, she saw many other kids of Berk doing their chores━she met Ruff and Tuff's gaze across the slope, and they all shared a disgusted gag before disappearing back into their homes.

    It snowed overnight, and Valkyrie welcomed Zephyr's neck that flopped over her chest, greeting the warmth it brought her. That was until he decided to plop himself onto her bed, and his weight sent Valkyrie jerking awake with an, "Oof━" seeing him, she sighed out, "Zephyr..."

    He just stared at her with his small eyes and gave her his best grin━a wide smile that cut up close to his tiny ears. The morning sun shone through the cracks of the wood of the window, and Valkyrie rubbed her eyes. "It's too early, Zeph━" she went to go back to sleep, but he just brought his tongue right up the side of her face. Her nose contorted, and she let out a, "Ack━Zephyr! Zephyr━no, no, no━oh, fine, I'm up! I'm up!"

    Happy, Zephyr hopped off her bed, and she wondered whether that was the plan all along. Sitting up, she narrowed her eyes at him and tried to wipe off all the dragon slobber from her cheeks. She flicked the residue at him, and he reared his head back. "Oh, I'm sorry," she taunted. "Did you find that gross? Welcome to my world, you slobber-beast."

    She threw her legs over and off her bed, "Come on, bossy-boots. Let's get ready for a morning flight."

    Valkyrie got dressed and grabbed her flower crown for herself and Zephyr. She was about to head outside to fit his saddle on him when she heard, "Valkyrie! What'd you do to our boots?!"

    She stopped, frowning. Her father's words confused her, and she spun back around. "You saw what I did to them! I put them outside like we always do on boot night!"

    "Well, they're not here!"

    This only made her frown more. Leaving Zephyr, she walked but to the main chamber, "What do you mean they're not there, I put them there..." her words fell away as she stepped outside where her father and mother stood barefoot amongst the snow. She searched for the boots she placed there last night, but they were nowhere in sight. "What? They were right there!" she pointed to the spot she had put them.

    Around the village, other Vikings stepped out of the homes and had a moment of confusion to see their boots gone. Valkyrie stepped down the steps and onto the fresh morning thawing snow. She wondered maybe this was the Twins doing, but then she also realised Ruff and Tuff were far too lazy to stay up all night and take everyone's boots, no matter how hilarious it might be.

    She saw Fishlegs standing over a gap in the snow, and Valkyrie rushed over. Reaching his side, her stomach jolted in seeing what could easily be a Zippleback footprint. The rest of the teens huddled around them, and even Ruff and Tuff were confused━and Valkyrie knew their we-did-something-but-we're-hiding-it face all too well, this wasn't it.

    "What the...?" mumbled Astrid, off in thought.

    "They've all been stolen!" Gobber cried to Stoick at the foot of his door where he, too, was surprised to not see his boots anywhere. "Every last one!"

    "Oh!" Bucket glanced down at his bare toes, "That explains why my feet are so cold."

    "Who could have done such a thing!" added Mulch; quite the dramatic one, Valkyrie has learnt.

    Hiccup followed his father out of the house, a deep frown upon his face. It seemed like such a strange thing to be worried about, but without their shoes in the harsh weather of Berk, numbness and Frostbite were not what they needed; especially right now.

    A gnarled walking stick thumped through the thawing snow, and Valkyrie threw her gaze up to the heavens to ask the Gods why they thought Mildew was a good person to create. (What even was he doing here? He lives on the other side of the village; of the island. He had to walk all this way without his boots...?) "All I know," he began, sniffling his long, crooked nose in the cool air, "Is that they left a mighty big footprint━" he pointed at the print in the snow the teens were all standing around.

    Zephyr━who had followed Valkyrie from the house━growled at him, and she had to raise her hand up to calm him down. "That doesn't explain anything, Mildew," she told the old man. "The whole village was covered in snow overnight, it could belong to any dragon, doesn't mean they were the cuplrit━"

    "Oh!" Fishlegs cut her off, bouncing with excitement as he recognised the footprints. Valkyrie spun towards him with a harsh glare. "Those are Hideous Zippleback tracks. You can tell by the half-moon shaped arches," he scoffed. "That's Dragon 101 guys, I don't gotta fill you in on that━" he saw the glares Val, Astrid, Snotlout and the Twins sent him, and he faltered. "What?"

    Hiccup pursed his lips. He glanced at Toothless who peered over his shoulder, the dragon and rider sharing a moment of exasperation. "Val's right," then said Hiccup, gesturing to the girl. "So a dragon walked through here━a Zippeback, according to my friend, Fishlegs. But that doesn't mean he took everyone's boots."

    "Well," Mildew's voice was as slimy as fish oil, and just as disgusting, "there's just one way to find out. Follow the footprints."

    Asrifth joined them, late to the party. But he soon caught up, and couldn't help but scoff himself. "You're not going to find anything. A Terrible Terror is more likely to steal your boots than a Zippleback; you would hear them in the night."

     Valkyre gestured to her brother to say, yeah! Listen to him!

    Mildew sneered at him, "Then there would be no harm━if you're so sure."

    With that said, he set off. The teens watched him go for a few moments. Astrid frowned, "I guess we could just not follow him..."

    But the other villagers had other ideas; following the nasty old man with eager grumbles. Snotlout sighed loudly, "I hate him so much."

    They followed him anyway.

    The footprints led to the Dragon Training Academy, which didn't settle well in Valkyrie's stomach. She wanted to say━as they stepped inside and saw a mountain of boots by a sleeping Barf and Belch━that it seemed to come together too easily, but she was sure to be biased. No one would believe her━and while Mildew was hated, he was a cunning son of a hatchet. He would twist her words right around to the point even Valkyrie wouldn't believe herself. But when she saw the Twins stare at their dragon with absolute disbelief, it angered her so much that she had to figure this out. Something smelled fishy; and no, it wasn't Zephyr's bad dragon breath. (She needs to take him to Gobber to get his teeth checked out, that just remindered her...).

    In hearing his father's angry sigh, Hiccup threw his hands out, "So, there's a bunch of boots piled around a Zippleback━" he was desperate by now, seeing the look upon Stoick's face. "that doesn't mean━" a boot was shoved in his face, showing rips of teeth marks all through, "━okay, fine, he took the boots..."

    Ruff propped her hands on her hips, staring down at Barf with a mother's dissaprovement━which was strange to see; it was such a mature look on such an immature person. Especially in comparison to her brother, who snickered into his hand, praising Belch for such a well thought-out prank. Ruff was soon to smack him over the head for it.

    Asrifth frowned, "This doesn't make sense..." he murmrued to Val and Astrid. The girls glanced at him curiously. "Yes, I know, it's Barf and Belch, they're far too like Ruff and Tuff for it to be good for anyone, but this is against a Zippleback's nature. They're mischevious, sure, but they're more likely to set fire a chook house for fun rather than take everyone's boots."

    "Every dragon's different," said Astrid sadly. "They don't always fit into the category you put them in Asrifth."

    "This is ourtrageous!" declared a Viking, and Valkyrie pinched the bridge of her nose.

    "How are we supposed to do any work in this weather without our boots!" cried another.

    "Now," Mildew was enjoying this; the mirth in his gaze was infuriating, "how long before something's done about these creatures, Stoick? How much more can we stand?"

    The Village cheered in agreement, slamming their fists together. Valkyrie searched for her parents, hoping they weren't among the mob; she was relevied to say they weren't. In fact, her father stepped forward and scoffed so loudly, it sounded more like a cough━either way, it made everyone go silent. Mallory Frode stood in line with Stoick and Gobber to say, "Listen to yourselves! You sound like a bunch of pansies! You're feet a cold? Get over it, we're Vikings! We thrive in the cold. Gobber and the tailors will fix your stupid boots. Gods. We'll be back to working in no time."

    Stoick clapped a hand on Mallory's back to say thank you, while Gobber nodded, agreeing to this arrangement. "You all heard Mallory. You'll be getting your boots back as good as new."

    There were still some mumbled complaints, but this seemed to calm everyone down. Valkyrie quickly muttered a thank you to her father and Odin. Mildew growled, annoyed. "That's it?" he pointed his staff at Stoick. "No consequence for these dragons?"

    The Chief tried his best not to sigh in his own annoyance at the old man. "They took our boots, Mildew. The world isn't coming to an end!"

    "Oh, don't be so sure..." he said. "Dragons are wild beasts. There's no telling what else they'll do behind our sleeping backs."

    Hiccup glared at him. "They don't destroy things on purpose!"

     "Bah!" Mildew threw his arms up, scoffing at the young boy who just ducked out of the way of his staff that flung past him.

    "But ..." Hiccup winced at his next words, "you do have a point, Mildew."

    This froze the old man up. Valkyrie felt a sense of satisfaction to see him so bewildered. "Uh━what?"

    "They are wild animals," the son of the chief rose his voice to address the crowd. "And they need us to keep an eye on them. And rest assured we will do just that!" turning to Barf and Belch, he whispered out of the side of his mouth, "Will you get out of there?!" The Zippleback darted away, and Hiccup frowned━the footprints; they were a completely different size to the ones they had found. He set his jaw.

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      ━━"We're going on night patrol."

    Astrid arched a blonde brow. Crossing her arms from beside Valkyrie, the two girls frowned at him. If this was his plan, they weren't exactly excited for it. But━of course━Val would follow his plan, and believed in him; she always will, even if this plan was boring.

     Tuffnut thought otherwise. "Night patrol!" he pounded his fist against the palm of his hand, grinning. "I love it! What is it?"

    (Of course).

    "It's where we patrol," said Hiccup, "at night ..." Tuffnut frowned, still confused. (Oh, they'll be here all day at this point). He shared a glance with his sister, but she shook her head as well, shrugging. "To keep an eye on the Dragons. Make sure they don't get blamed for anything else."

     The twins realised with a slow, "Oh..."

    "Um..." Fishlegs held up a nervous finger in question. "Have you cleared this with our parents?" he tapped his thumbs together, going bright red at the cheeks. "Because some of us might not be allowed out after a certain hour."

    Snotlout peered at him, smirking. "Not allowed?" he jeered. "Or afraid?"

    Fishlegs glared at him, "Hey!" he snapped in a harsh whisper. "Things happen after dark."

    "Guys!" Hiccup snapped his fingers at them to regain their attention. "We have to do this. You heard Mildew. He wants the dragons banished."

    Ruff nodded, determined. Crossing her arms and leaning against the wood of the catapult next to her brother, she raised her hand. "Permission to shoot first and ask questions later?"

    Tuff slapped her arm out of the way, "Permission to skip the question?"

    "We're just patrolling!" Hiccup exclaimed. "Nobody is shooting anyone!"

    "I have a question━" Tuffnut narrowed his eyes. "What's fun about that?"

    "It's not supposed to be fun," said Astrid, rolling her eyes. "It's a Hiccup idea."

     "Exactly!" the son of the chief grinned, happy someone was agreeing with him, only to realise exactly what she had said. He frowned at her. "Wait, what?"

     Valkyrie sighed, "All right━come on guys, Night Patrol here we come."

     "Ugh!" Ruffnut whined. "Permission to ask questions and then shoot?"

     "No━" Val shoved her along.

     And so, as night fell upon the island of Berk, the teenagers━with their fancy sashes Hiccup made for them last minute━took to the streets to patrol for any mischevious dragons. Valkyrie picked at her sash with an upturned nose, reading the acronym. They were the Dragon United Monitoring Bridage!

    (And yes ... that came to spell D.U.M.B).

    Walking the moon-lit streets with Zephyr, Valkyrie picked flowers as she went. Finding an Evening Primrose by someone's garden, she nicked with with a sneaky finger━they were an invasive species! (Even if they are pretty, and look really good in her hair... no, she didn't pick it because of that, of course not!). Her mother told her that a Primrose meant I cant live without you, and she found it then one of the most beautiful flowers to exist. An Evening Primrose, on the other hand, symbolised a promise of love that one couldn't keep. A childish love, preliminary━one that disappeared before it even began; inconstancy. Valkyrie would never gift someone an Evening Primrose, but she still held it close. Because preliminary love━love that doesn't last into adulthood was still beautiful in its own way. Fleeting, but full of passion.

    Maybe that was one of the reasons why Valkyrie was so hesitant to go further at her age with Hiccup. She kissed him, but to promise something at fifteen; it was like an Evening Primrose. It seemed to only be cursed to fail, to wilt away. She didn't want to promise him an Evening Primrose. She wanted to wait until the right flower bloomed; the right time to promise forever. She was too young to promise forever.

     Zephyr peered at the flower in her fingers, and she smiled at him. She let him sniff it, expecting the sneeze and pulling her head out of the way. "You sneeze at nearly every flower, Zeph, might need Gothi to check you out. Or Mum. I hope you haven't got some sort of lice or flea ... or something."

    He sneezed again. Valkyrie scrunched her nose up. "Yeah, that was stupid. You probably don't have lice or fleas, otherwise we'd all get them. Ugh━you weren't here for the Lice Plague when I was little━I mean, maybe you were, who knows━but everyone was itching for days ... yeah, I know, gross."

    Val picked at the dirt and roots, continuing her walk. Passing through the town, she saw what she expected: dragons just sleeping the night away like every other Viking.

    "This is stupid," she grumbled. "We shouldn't be having to do this, Zeph. Why can't Mildew just stay on his side of the island?"

     They stayed up until morning. Valkyrie was beyond tired, and in the end, she had sent Zeph back home to sleep; she wasn't going to make him stay up that long with her. The only good thing that came out of it, was that Valkyrie made plenty of flower crowns, and caught up on the stock she was meant to find and pick for her mother.

     Meeting up with the Twins, she was hearing the tale of how they scared Fishlegs, and then the argument of who actually scared him more when there was a shout of: "D.U.M.B!" from the Great Hall.

    Vaklyrie's gaze went blank. "We really need a better name."

    But they started the trek up the long slope. The group of teens all met up together outside the large oak double doors, sharing an anxious glance on what they might find before stepping inside.

    It was trashed.

    Tapestiries━generations old━were hanging in tears or on the floor. The wood of the chief carvings were scratched and knocked over with markings of claws five times the size of Valkyrie's palm. Half the village had already arrived, frowning at the damage and grumbling to themselves. Stoick the Vast stood amongst them all, and as soon as he saw his son lead in his group of riders, he stormed over with an explosive, "Who could have done such a thing?!"

    Fishlegs tottered over to the markings and examined the shape of the claws. "Oh, it looks like a dragon to me!" he stated.

    Hiccup winced. Spinning to his good friend, he tried to tell him to stay quiet with a sharp. "We don't know that for sure, Fishlegs━"

    The meaning flew right over his head. "Sure, we do!" said Fishlegs. Astrid and Valkyrie both slapped their hands to their foreheads in their annoyance. "Look at these claw marks. It was obviously a Monstrous Nightmare. The spacing of the talons is dead on."

    Behind Tuff, Snotlout shrunk up, his cheeks going pink in realisation. Hiccup's nose twitched, "Once again, thank you, Fishlegs!"

    The sarcasm flew past Fishlegs as well, for he grinned and gushed. "Oh, stop, it's just basic stuff." Hiccup's face fell, frustrated.

    "But how could this happen?" stepped forward Astrid, her hands flying out in her exasperation. "We had every dragon accounted for at all times! Right, guys?"

    The others nodded, except for Snotlout. He winced, and played with his fingers. Valkyrie narrowed her eyes at him, "Snotlout," she began "What did you do?"

    He gave her a nervous smile, "When you say, 'at all times'," he quoted the words with his fingers, "and 'every dragon', what exactly do you mean?"

    Hiccup face-palmed from beside his father. He took a deep breath to keep his anger down and said gently, "Okay, what happened, Snotlout?"

    "Well," started Snotlout, "I was detaining a suspect who wasn't showing sufficient respect to the sash━" jutting a thumb at the leather cloth across his shoulders, he sent a harsh glare Gobber's way.

    The blacksmith scoffed, "I think I showed sufficient respect to a sash that says D.U.M.B."

    Valkyrie pinched the bridge of her nose again. "We really got to change that name!"

    "Anyways," Snotlout crossed his arms, miffed, "as I was questioning said suspect━" another glare Gobber's way, "━Hookfang may have, and I'm not saying that he did, but it is possible he wandered off for a few..."

    "Seconds?" Ruffnut offered.

    "Minutes?" Tuff winced at the look on Snotlout's face.

    He chuckled tensely, "Hours..."

    "Oh," Tuffnut frowned, "that's way longer than minutes."

    Valkyrie sighed, "Snotlout!"

    He gaped at her, "What?! It's not my fault. It's Hookfang's!"

    Astrid growled at him, "You're his owner!"

    The doors opened with a slam to the morning wind. With them was Mildew (coming at the least perfect time every, as usual). He hobbled in, and Valkyrie's glare harshened. He took in the damage and gasped, "Oh, no, it's true! The Great Hall! So many memories━" his dramatic misery made Astrid turn up her nose in disgust. "My three weddings, their three funerals. Oh, the funerals!"

     Gobber gritted his teeth. He turned to Stoick. "A dragon must have gone on a rampage. I hate to say it, Stoick, but you're going to have to━"

    "I know what has to be done, Gobber," sighed the chief. An uneasy air settled on the shoulders of the teens. They all shared a look━they all had a feeling they knew exactly what they meant.

    Mildew laughed with glee, pointing his staff at them. "So do I!"

    "Starting tonight," announced the chief, "every night, I want all the dragons put in the Academy under lock and key."

    (Mildew wasn't expecting this). "What?!" he cried. "That's it?! Look what they did!"

    "This doesn't make any sense," argued Hiccup as his friends all gasped in their horror. Valkyrie couldn't lock Zephyr away at night━who was supposed to wake her up in the mornings? Who was supposed to annoy her when she's trying to sleep? "A dragon wouldn't jut come in here and destroy the place━I mean, none of the food was even touched!"

    "I don't know why dragons do what they do," said Stoick, his voice stern, "but I'm not going to let them do any more damage."

    Hiccup swallowed angrily, but he didn't say anything else. His father had made his decision, and Vikings all had their stubborness issues. He turned back to his friends, and Valkyrie's shoulders fell to realise that they had lost, yet again.

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     ━━"Come on," Valkyrie urged her brother's Terrible Terrors towards a corner in the arena she had made for them. They wined, but listened. "Come on, there you go..." sighing, she sat back and watched Asrifth fix up a pile of rocks for his Gronckle, Boulder. "I'm sorry."

    "For what," Asrifth scratched him under the chin. "It's not you're fault━" he sent a glare over to Snolout, who scoffed.

    "Watch it, Asrifth!" he clenched his hands into fists by Hookfang's snout. "At least my dragon doesn't need a bed of rocks to keep him company!"

    Hott narrowed his eyes at him. Spikemoth bobbed her head at Stormfly sadly, and Astrid had to look away and back to where she sharpened her axe blade on the floor. "He's right," said Valkyrie's younger brother. "It is your fault."

    "Uh, no it's not," Snotlout argued. "If anything, it's Valkyrie's fault."

    Surprised, she spun to face him, "I'm sorry?"

    He pointed a finger at her, "Yeah, you heard me. None of this would have happened if you didn't dare Hookfang and I to do the trust excercise━then we wouldn't have crash landed in Mildew's house to make him start this whole mess."

    Valkyrie grew livid, "Hang on━how does that even━Snotlout, your dragon━" she gestured angrily at Hookfang, "━destroyed the Great Hall! Crashing into Mildew's house didn't start that!"

    "Okay..." Hiccup held a hand out to her to calm her. She grumbled, but turned away, crossing her arms and glowering at the wall. Zephyr snarled at Hookfang to prove her point; he snapped his jaw back.

    "It is your fault that all our dragons have to sleep in jail," Ruffnut told Snotlout, and he scoffed, shaking his head.

    "Yeah," agreed Tuff. "You don't see our dragon going on a rampage and wrecking stuff━" behind him and his sister, their dragon growled at Hookfang, stepping forward menacingly and smashing their water trout under their feet. "Well ..." Tuff doubled back, "not any good stuff."

    Hiccup pursed his lips. He turned to Valkyrie, "I don't think a dragon wrecked the Great Hall or stole the boots."

    Astrid sighed, "Hiccup━None of us want to believe it either, but you saw the proof."

    "What proof?" he gave her a brief glance. "You saw the footprints, too. They were supposed to be made my a Zippleback, but they're no deeper than mine. Look at these━!" he pointed to a footprint Barf and Belch left in the snow. "I could lie down in them!"

    Valkyrie frowned in thought, her anger diminishing for a moment to take in what Hiccup was saying. Fishlegs stopped singing a lullaby to Meatlug to say, "Well, there could be a lot of explanations why a dragon made shallow footprints."

    "Like, hello," Ruff waved her arms, "he was trying to be sneaky?"

    "Zipplebacks can't be sneaky," muttered Asrifth. "I tried to tell everyone, but did they listen?" he scoffed, "Nooo..."

    "All right," Astrid set her axe aside. "Well, how do you explain the Great Hall?"

    Hiccup was stumped at that. Valkyrie placed a hand on his shoulder to say that she believed him, and would help. The evidence stared in their faces, but Val remembered the feeling the morning after all of their boots were stolen; the feeling that it wrapped up too nicely, and maybe she had been right━

    She jumped away from her thoughts at the loud roar Hookfang sent to Barf and Belch. His whole body erupted in flames, screeching in defiance against the Zippleback. Hiccup was not in the mood for Snotlout's dragon. He gestured to him, annoyed, "Snotlout, do something about him, please? We're trying to think over here."

    Tuffnut scoffed, "Yeah, I gave up thinking. Never been happier."

    "That makes sense," muttered Asrifth.

    Hookfang reared, and Hiccup clenched his fists. "Snotlout!"

    "I'm not the boss of him!" Snotlout argued. "He always does that when he's angry!"

    Hookfang growled and trotted over to where Snotlout had set up a basket of fish for him, leaving a scorched footprint on the stone. Hiccup's eyes widened. "Or goes on a rampage..." Valkyrie saw the gears turning in his head, and he clicked his fingers. Rushing back to Toothless, he lept up onto his saddle. "That's how I can explain the Great Hall! I've got to tell my dad about this!"

    Before any of them could follow, he and Toothless launched up into the sky.

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     ━━Valkyrie forgot how long the walk from the arena back to the village was without having a dragon to ride. She wondered that if she had been able to ride Zephyr back, she might have been able to stop the disaster from happening. But even when they saw the flames burst into the night sky, and the group of them ran as fast as they could up the slope, they were too late.

    "Fire!" shouted the Vikings of the village. "Fire!"

    "The armoury!" Valkyrie heard Stoick bellow. "Grab some buckets!"

    "Oh, mighty Odin━" cursed Astrid, and they pushed forward. The armoury was on fire? How? They didn't need an armoury to be destroyed. The last thing they needed was to be defenceless.

    The teens grabbed buckets of water in passing, rushing towards the flames. Asrifth gaped in disbelief at the burning armoury, "How did this even happen?" he couldn't help but ask, and Valkyrie didn't have an answer. She just threw the bucket towards the flames, the water dousing it only for seconds before starting up again.

    But another Viking answered for him. Amongst the chaos, he pointed to the lonely Night Fury by the steps up to the chief's house, watching with wide eyes. "It was him!" declared the Viking. "He set the armoury on fire!"

    Hiccup frowned, dropping down his buckets of water to stare at his dragon in shock. "Toothless...?"

    It took a long time to put the fire out; buckets of buckets of water only to find every weapon in the armoury melted and destroyed. Hiccup was in absolute disbelief, staring at his dragon who whimpered and hung his head. It didn't make sense━Toothless would never do this on purpose; he knew better than to fire in such a closed-space of wood. And yet, here they were.

    Valkyrie didn't know what to say, or do. She stood beside him, staring at the charred building with a stomach full of dread. They were left completely defenceless.

    "Every one of our weapons━gone!" cried Stoick, kicking some hanging debris in his frustration.

    Gobber was perhaps in more ruins than the armoury, sobbing over his broken and melted weapons with cries of each of their names, "Prudence! My poor darling, I'm so sorry. You should've had a long, blood-letting life!"

    "She didn't have to die, Gobber," appeared Mildew, and Valkyrie sent him a harsh glare. Always the pest. "Hiccup's dragon left us utterly defenseless!"

    There was a murmuer of agreement amongst the Vikings, and Val grew frustrated. She wanted to shout at them, this is Mildew, why do you care what he says?! But she couldn't ignore the obvious; whether Toothless had done it or not, he was right: they were defenceless.

    "Dad," Hiccup turned to his father pleadingly, "you know Toothless wouldn't do this."

    "Sure," sneered Mildew, hovering behind them. Oh, my gods, can she just punch him? "Listen to your boy, Stoick. That's what got us into this mess!" he leered in next to Hiccup and murmured, "See what happens when you leave your dragon all alone to wait outside?"

    Hiccup blinked and watched him hobble away in shock, "What did you say━?"

    "Sadie!" wailed Gobber, clutching a dagger to his chest. "Oh, I guess your throat-slicing days are over."

    Stoick had to make a decision. With the growing complains of the villagers, he had no choice but to turn to his son, pained to tell him, "These dragons have done too much damage. It's no longer safe to have them on Berk." Hesitant, he took a deep breath. Placing a gentle hand on his son's shoulder, he could already see betrayl clouding his eyes. "I want them gone."

    "WHAT?!" the dragon riders all exclaimed, looking at their chief in absolute shock. Valkyrie couldn't believe this was happening. What did he mean by gone? Gone as in locked up in the arena or gone as ... as in forever; off the island.

    "Round them up," said Stoick sadly, "and take them all to Dragon Island." He raised his voice to address the rest of the villagers. "By the end of the day tomorrow, there will be no more dragons on Berk!"

    A collective wave of gasped echoed amongst the crowd. Valkyrie saw her two youngest brothers frown at each other, and look up to their parents to ask, "Wait, what?", "What does that mean?" "Are the dragons going?"

    Valkyrie felt like a fist had reached into her chest, pulled out her heart and stomped it into the snow. They're dragons ... gone ... forever ...

    "No," she muttered, shaking her head. "No━he━he can't do that."

    While most of the village was in dismay, Mildew threw his hands up in celebration, "Oh!" he cried. "What a glorious day it will be! Party at my house!" everyone ignored him, dispersing with miserable figures back to their homes. Valkyrie turned to Hiccup, wanting it to not be true, but he was just as defeated as the rest of them. Mildew snickered, hobbling back over to say, "Don't forget, boy. Right after you drop off your dragon, you'll be fixing my roof."

    He left, and Hiccup glared at his retreating back. With gritted teeth, he said to Valkyrie, "This is wrong."

    "I know," she whimpered, feeling the sudden need to cry━which was very unlike her. "It's horrible. This is the worst day of my life..."

    "No, Val," he held her arm to make her meet his gaze. "Something here doesn't add up."

    "All I know is I'm losing my dragon," mumbled Fishlegs in grief, and led the group of teenagers away from the armoury.

    Hiccup watched them walk away, his face falling, "F━for now, yeah!" he tried to call them back. "Okay, but I━I just need some time to fix this━"

    "What are you talking about?" Snotlout frowned at him in passing. "It's over."

    "Forget it," agreed Ruff, "it's over."

    "Yeah," added her brother, "forget it."

    Astrid was the last to follow, stopping for a second to sigh sadly at Hiccup, "They're right, Hiccup ... there's nothing left to do ..."

    Valkyrie sniffled back her tears and started the way back home, leaving Hiccup alone outside the dark ashened armoury.

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

    ━━Valkyrie never thought she would have to say goodbye to Zephyr like this. It made her feel naive and foolish, to think that Vikings and dragons could live peacefully after everything that had happened; all of their history. But here she was ... standing on the cool, pebbled shore of Dragon Island and trying to explain to Zephyr that she had to leave and not come back. This wasn't just her having to cage him up, or lock him away, or keep him inside at night ... this was forever. A forever goodbye.

     She tried to block the others out, just focusing on her and the dragon she called her closest friend. Valkyrie used to want to be the best dragon slayer there was, until Hiccup showed her another way to look at these creatures; until Zephyr showed her. Showed her that they were kind, and intelligent, a window to your very own soul.

     "I don't know what I'm going to do without you," Valkyrie whispered, her voice getting caught behind the lump in the back of her throat.

     Zephyr knew she was upset, and she wondered whether deep down, he knew exactly why. He nuzzled his head closer and over her shoulder, pulling her in close to his neck. Valkyrie wrapped her arms up and around, sobbing into the warm underbelly of his skin. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I'm sorry I didn't try harder. I'm sorry..."

     He made a guttural sound at the back of his throat, as if an apology of his own. She felt him nestle his head in the crook of her shoulders, and out of his nose, breathed a sad sigh of hot air that only made her tremble more in her tears.

     She knew she couldn't stay here forever, no matter how much she wanted to. With a deep and brave breath, Valkyrie nodded to herself and tried to pull away, but Zephyr clung on, not letting her. "No," she mumbled, tear-stricken. "No, Zeph, let go."

     Valkyrie managed to wrench herself free, cupping her dragon's snout. "I have to go," she told him. "I have to leave. You need to stay here."

     She stepped back. Turning away, Valkyrie tried to ignore his whines, the unsure shuffle of his feet as he went to follow her, but stopped. Stepping up onto the boat with the others for the journey back, she still couldn't look back. I'm strong, she told herself. I will not look back.

    But even the strongest of the Vikings had people━or reptiles━in their lives that they couldn't live without.

    She sat in silence against the mast, staring off into the horizon back to Berk and kept taking deep breaths through her nose to stop herself from crying. This was the worst day of her life.

    Someone sat down beside her. She didn't need to look to know it was Hiccup. For a few seconds, they just sat there, both in a sombre silence until Hiccup set his jaw, and said, "There's something Mildew said that I can't stop thinking about."

    Val frowned. She met his gaze, and saw the determination flickering in his green hues. "H━he said: 'see what happens when you leave your dragon to wait outside?' He knew Toothless wasn't with me before the armoury fire."

    Valkyrie didn't know where he was going with this. "So ...?"

    "So ... so, he━he lives on the other side of the island━" he gave a wide gesture to their left with his hands. "What was he doing in town? And━and how would he know where we were before the fire?"

    She slowly began to understand, and she felt her stomach twist. "Hiccup," she muttered. "If your saying that you're thinking Mildew set that fire━"

    "No, I'm saying he did all of it," Hiccup told her, suddenly very angry. He glared off into the coastline. "And I think he did it so my dad would get rid of all the dragons."

     Valkyrie thought about it. She didn't want her baised hated of Mildew to get in the way of wanting to believe it was true, or the desperation to have her dragon back, but ... there was an odd way in which it all made sense. So, with a deep breath, she nodded. "Okay, I believe you," she frowned at Hiccup. "But proving it? Mildew's annoying, but he's smart, finding evidence on him doing this will be hard."

    "I don't care," said Hiccup. "He framed our dragons; framed Toothless, and I'm not going to let him get away with it."

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

     a/n: lol I got bored the other night and illustrated up the scene in this is Berk in the first movie with hiccup simping over Astrid but it's Valkyrie instead and I think I did a good job in recreating the scene but making it ✨ Valkyrie ✨

(lol I had to)

also I keep saying this, but my updating structure is just all over the place.