Another Day in Berk

Berk came into view, but Drago beat us there. All of the dragons under the control of the Alpha fluttered around the island and the added ice shards jutting from some homes. It seemed Drago had been there a little too long.

"No..." Hiccup breathed, watching the Bewilderbeast scale the side of the cliff.

"He took all the dragons!" I heard Fishlegs exclaim from behind me.

Hiccup managed to turn his Scuttleclaw around to face us. "Distract the Alpha," he said. "Keep his focus off of Toothless."

Truffnut forced his baby dragon up closer, "Uh, how?"

"Have you forgotten who you're riding with?" Our attention was brought to Eret. "There isn'ts a dragon alive I can't wrangle! Except maybe this one!"

A laughed escaped me as the Scuttleclaw veered off with Eret.

"Amateur," Snotlout grumbled under his breath.

I laughed more, but stopped when Hiccup and Valka looked at me.

"What? That was pretty funny and laughter would be good to ease this anxiety you know," I smiled.

Valka chuckled and Hiccup grinned at me. But the bout of happiness ended when we heard the village of Berk cheering as we neared.

Everyone except Hiccup landed on the island and put a plan into action. Fishlegs waddled over to one of Berk's giant horns and the rest of us headed toward the sheep pen where we each took a sheep in our arms. We brought the sheep to the slingshot used for dragon racing and got a sheep up in the holder.

Snotlout manned the slingshot and when Hiccup got a little closer to Toothless, Snotlout let the sheep fly up into the air in front of the Alpha. The Bewilderbeast glanced at the fluffy animal, but quickly ignored it as he eyeballed Hiccup. The Bewilderbeast was about to shoot off some ice toward Hiccup when Fishlegs blew the horn, successfully stopping the Alpha.

"Black sheep, baby!" Snotlout cheered. Eret set the sheep in the sling and the sheep was shot into the air.

The black sheep in the Alpha's forehead and then bounced down a few spikes on his face until the unamused dragon blew it away. I had to fight of a snicker at the situation.

Fishlegs blew the horn once more, but that time the Bewilderbeast didn't hesitate in shooting his icy breath at the horn. Fishlegs barely got out of the way before the ice caused the horn to shatter into pieces.

"I'm okay!" Fishlegs announced, running to our group.

Our distraction was long enough for Hiccup to get close to Toothless and we all stopped to watch what would happen next.

I chewed on my bottom lip as Hiccup extended his arm out to Toothless. His Scuttleclaw seemed to understand Hiccup and hovered nearer to the Fury.

Drago suddenly looked surprised when Toothless began to shake off the Alpha's control. The spikes on the Bewilderbeast's face vibrated vigorously from behind Drago and Toothless, but Toothless didn't quit fighting.

The second Hiccup's palm pressed against the snout of Toothless, the Night Fury snapped out of his daze and grinned at Hiccup. Drago whacked at Toothless, but Toothless grabbed the weapon in his mouth, throwing it aside, and then bucking Drago off his back.

Drago fell, but Toothless soon followed without a rider to help him. Hiccup didn't hesitate to jump off of the Scuttleclaw and dive after his dragon.

I gasped with my friends as Hiccup and Toothless fell. It was like everything was going in slow motion. I almost called out to my friend, but the words stopped in my throat.

In a twist of events, Toothless managed to flip upright, so Hiccup could land on his saddle, and once Hiccup landed, he put his dragon's makeshift tail in the position to pull up right before they collided with the ocean water. Toothless leveled out and swooped around Berk. When they came out on the other side of the island, a red fabric covered Toothless' eyes.

In the midst of all that, Drago managed to get his pike back and climbed back onto his Bewilderbeast.

"He always has a plan," Astrid commented with admiration as our friend zoomed past and Berk cheered.

Hiccup guided Toothless straight toward Drago. Before they ran into one another, Toothless flipped over on his back and Hiccup lept off. Drago looked around confused until Hiccup surrounded him with Zippleback gas and lit it on fire. The gas blew up and knocked Drago off the Bewilderbeast, the power hungry man crashing to the ground. His weapon imbedded itself into the ground a few yards away.

Hiccup opened his gliding suit and hovered straight toward the Alpha's cedar-like tail. He couldn't change his course fast enough, but Toothless saved his rider with the use of his extra fins that gave him more directional power in the air. The Night Fury followed the tail even as it swung upward and they shot into the sky.

Toothless landed next to Drago, who was reaching for his weapon, but Hiccup threw Inferno to stop his hand.

"Hold him there, Toothless. It's all over now," Hiccup said.

The Alpha rose behind Hiccup and we saw Drago smirk.

"Or is it?" the man chuckled.

Before any of us could call to Hiccup, he turned to see the Bewilderbeast that instantly spewed ice toward Hiccup. Our friend was encased in ice.

"Hiccup!" I cried, running closer, but I paused when Valka got to the ice first.

She started pounding on it to break it, but she gave up and rested her head on the ice in defeat. Then the ice began to glow blue. Valka noticed and stumbled away right before the ice burst into tiny shards.

Toothless stood over Hiccup, his body glowing an electric blue. The Fury grinned at a very safe Hiccup and then scampered up an ice shard to be eye level with the Alpha. He roared loud and menacingly.

"He's challenging the Alpha!" Hiccup exclaimed, looking toward his mother.

"To protect you!" she exclaimed in wonderment.

Suddenly, Toothless began to shoot blue fireballs at the Bewilderbeast, many pounding the dragon in his face to disrupt his power over the other dragons. Toothless roared at the freed dragons and gained their loyalty. They moved to hover behind the Fury while Drago began to understand that he was losing.

"No, no, no no, no! Fight back! Fight back!"

The Bewilderbeast hesitated seeing his dragon army leaving him so easily. Drago continued to yell at the dragon, but he still didn't attack Toothless.

Toothless jumped down to get Hiccup and then went back to the top of the ice shard.

"Now do you get it?" Hiccup asked Drago. "This is what it is to earn a dragon's loyalty. Let this end now."

"Never!" Drago forced the Bewilderbeast to attack. "Come on!"

The giant dragon didn't get a chance to move when all the dragons behind Toothless began to shoot fireballs of their own at the Bewilderbeast.

"Fight!" Drago screamed.

His attempted assault was cut short when Toothless released a fireball so strong that it knocked Drago off the dragon and broke one of the Bewilderbeast's horns off. It splashed into the ocean below.

Their pride hurt, Drago and his dragon retreated into the ocean, the whimpering roars of the Bewilderbeast fading away as they went.

"The Alpha protects them all!" Hiccup announced as the whole of Berk cheered.

Suddenly, dragons dove to their masters and laughter filled the air.

I felt a nudge against my back and I turned to reveal Nightstriker tilting her head like an owl.

"You're okay!" I grinned, hugging her around her neck. Her hum of delight made me smile bigger. "I'm so glad you're back. I missed you."

She hummed again and nuzzled my cheek.

My attention was brought to Cloudjumper flying overhead and landing in front of Toothless. Everyone watched curiously as the large Stormcutter bowed to Toothless. The Night Fury puffed out his chest proudly, causing the other dragons around to follow Cloudjumper's example.

Once the moment was over, Hiccup neared his dragon. "You never ceased to amaze me, bud." Hiccup placed his forehead against his dragon's snout, "Thank you."

I could feel the warmth of the moment and the Berkians that looked on at the scene. It made my heart swell so much that it was effortless to laugh when Toothless began licking Hiccup in joy.

"Ah! Toothless, you know that doesn't wash out!" Hiccup whined, smiling ear to ear.

The sounds of my friends reuniting with their dragons caught my attention. My cheeks hurt so much from all the smiling I was doing. Berk was on it's way to being normal again.

"That was some pretty fine dragon wrangling back there," Eret's voice brought my gaze back to Hiccup. "You'd make a good trapper."

Hiccup smiled, appreciating the compliment and then pat Skullcrusher, Stoick's old dragon, who stood next to the two of them.

"You know, Skullcrusher is going to need someone to look after him now."

"Me?" Eret gently pat Skullcrusher's head. "I'd be honored."

Skullcrusher immediately took a liking to our new friend and head-butted him so much he fell over. I giggled at the scene.

Valka then walked over to hug her son, "Your father, he'd be very bit as proud as I am."

Hiccup looked at her lovingly, "Thank you. I'm really glad you're here, Mom."

Suddenly, the rowdy twins came up to Hiccup and playfully pushed him between the two of them. Fishlegs said and awkward congrats to him for beating Drago while Snotlout clapped him on the back. Astrid hit him in the chest to make his glide suit wings pop out, making the lot of us laugh.

I jumped into the midst of the group to hug Hiccup tightly. "Thank the gods you're okay," I muttered into his shoulder, squeezing him once before letting him go.

"I've been through worse," he smiled, pointing at his peg leg.

I looked at his lack of a foot for a moment and then hugged him again. That time he hugged me back just as tightly as I did.

"I don't want anymore adventures for awhile, " I quietly told him.

He held me out at arms length, "I don't think I'll have any adventures for a while if I have to be..."

Hiccup didn't finish, but I knew he was talking about taking his dad's place as chief. I went to touch his face to comfort him, but remembered all the eyes still watching. So instead I ruffled his hair and pulled him into a headlock.

"You'll do great," I laughed, once I let him go.

He straightened his hair, "Ah ha, still doing that. That's hilarious."

I grinned, "I know I am."

That's when Hiccup's grin matched mine and he grabbed my hand. My face didn't take more than a millisecond to turn bright red.

"Come here you," he teased, tugging me toward him.

In a second, I bumped into him, his free hand came to rest against my cheek while his other came to my waist and his lips pressed against mine.

My whole body rose in temperature, but despite my embarrassment, I closed my eyes and let my hands rest on his chest as I kissed him back.

I heard Gobber make a noise and I could only think about how everyone else reacted after that.

Hiccup was the first to pull away and he chuckled softly, "You okay?"

I opened my eyes, "What?"

The dragon rider still holding me laughed and I couldn't believe my face turned redder than it was. The catcalls from our friends didn't do anything to help my blush. I let my forehead hit Hiccups shoulder as I tried to disappear.

"Oh come on Frigga," he teased. "It can't be that embarrassing."

"It wouldn't be if the whole village wasn't watching..." I mumbled, then gasped. "I can't believe you kissed me in front of your own mother!"

He shrugged, "We're viking."

"That's not a good enough reason!"

We were suddenly forced away from each other as Toothless stuck his head between us and licked our faces happily.

"Ugh, Toothless!" I squealed, wiping the saliva from my face.

In the midst of us cleaning our faces of dragon spit, Gothi, the village's Elder, stood in front of Hiccup. She took some dirt, urged Hiccup to lean down to her level, and drew the chieftain symbol on his forehead. Hiccup stood up straight, looking tall and heroic in front of everyone.

"The chief has come home!" Gobber exclaimed.

All of Berk and its dragons cheered. Hiccup met the eyes of each Berkian surrounding us. He wrapped an arm around my waist again, grinned at me, then looked back at the crowd.

Berk. Full of stubborn vikings and dragons of all kinds. I never thought there'd be a day where my best friend would be chief, a great one, and be more than just a best friend. Life on Berk never has a dull moment.