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❛ ᴋʜᴀʟᴇᴇsɪ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ᴛʜᴀᴛ's sᴏ ( ᴍᴜᴄʜ )
ᴍᴇᴛᴀʟ, ᴍᴀɴ!꒱


❝ YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG
WITH A NICE SWORD, LASS ❞

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Drogon glared at the man dressed in red and blue robes. Although his mother had sidelined him to staying on land, even his place just in front of the docks wasn't far enough away to hide the scent of lies and deceit on him. It was a sour smell, harsh and acidic that burned his heightened senses whenever he breathed in the trader's direction. While he'd tried his best, he couldn't stop his mother from meeting the man's ship this time, so he resorted to staying close by; if he could help it, he would never let the pair go off alone. His presence was clearly making the trader nervous, which was good. The older man kept glancing at him warily— most notably at Drogon's big teeth, which he kept bared in his direction.

Johann cleared his throat, still eyeballing the huge dragon. "Master Hiccup, as much as I am delighted that you have brought your friend to help support my humble business, must her large reptilian companion be present as well?"

Dany was too excited to pay the question much mind. After missing Johann's boat the first time, she was bound and determined to catch it when he next docked at the Archipelago. She had waited with her friends, bouncing on the balls of her feet while the trader set up the ship. (While she did not like the man much himself and kept her dragon's feelings about him in mind, that wouldn't stop her from eagerly checking out his famous wares.) Once the gangplank had been lowered, she'd rushed past the other teens to be first on the ship, hence why Johann addressed the chief's son rather than Drogon's rider herself.

Hiccup, who had been watching the blonde's curious enthusiasm fondly, startled out of his daydream. "Huh? Oh, I'm afraid not. Where Dany goes, Drogon goes. You don't have to worry about him, though— if he was going to eat you, he already would have."

That understandably did not make the trader feel any better, but the brunet brushed passed him to join Daenerys. She was admiring a set of carving knives that had a dark wood handle with streaks of lighter wood throughout. Both ends of the hilt were gilded with intricate, woven detailing. Hiccup smiled a little, entirely unsurprised that she managed to find the exact thing she'd be interested in within the first few minutes. "Do you like those?"

She glanced over at him sheepishly. "I don't need them; I have a perfectly good set at home. But. . . I have used them for a long time. Then again, they still work just fine, so I can't really justify the expense—"

"Do you like them?" he repeated, enunciating the question.

"Um. . . yeah. Rose wood is really pretty, not to mention the design on the blade— I don't even know how they got that wavey pattern," the blonde enthused, getting lost in the details of her craft.

The brunet's fond expression returned, happy to listen to her ramble on about carving as she always listened to his brainstorming. He would have let her continue on like this for however long she would've liked, had Johann had not sidled over to them. "Ah, Miss Daenerys, what fascinating taste you have! Those knives have quite the history to them, originating all the way from the Asias. But perhaps s young woman like yourself would be more interested in the Pearls of Dyngja?"

He held up two small earrings that were made of translucent pearls. The older man glanced at the chief's son and the moonstruck look on his face. With a sly smile, he added, "perfect for that special lady in your life."

Hiccup didn't seem to hear him, already thinking about ideas on what to get Dany for this year's Snoggletog. Snotlout, however, did. He smirked at the blonde as he leaned casually against some goods that were stacked nearby. "You know, Daenerys, those could be yours. Just say the word."

Dany, who had had more practice in standing up for herself, turned her nose up at his offer. She'd take paper rings if Hiccup was giving them to her over any real jewelry the Jorgenson could ever try to sway her with. She gave her opinion in her usual blunt way, proclaiming: "yuck."

"That's not the word, Daenerys," Snotlout huffed. She ignored him, instead choosing to take Hiccup by the wrist and pull him to another side of the boat, away from the annoying boy.

Gobber joined them as the teens continued to look around. He studied the piles of wares that Johann brought but didn't seem to be impressed by any. "Mm, nope," he muttered, passing by another set of items. "Nope."

Johann found his next target and jumped over to the blacksmith, gearing up for another sale. "Ahh, Mister Gobber. What can I interest you in?"

"Why don't you wow me, Johann?" he replied. "Knock me off my feet."

The trader smiled, apparently pleased with showing off his goods. "Putting me to the test, are you? Okay."

"Hang on." Gobber stumped his way over to a tarp covering some strangely-shaped object. "What's under here?"

"Oh, nothing too exciting," Johann began, trying to dissuade him from looking. "Just an old pile of—"

But Gobber didn't listen. He pulled the covering off and his eyes widened with delight as he saw what was underneath. "Scrap metal! It's perfect! I've run out of things to pound around here."

Tuffnut had been watching the exchange, but his gaze suddenly slid past the men as his eyes came to rest on the side of the boat. "Whoa. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

Astrid gave the pile an unimpressed look. "It's just scrap metal."

"No, I'm talking about this mace!" He rushed over and picked up the weapon, staring at it in awe. "Hey, mace. You wanna come home with me, don't you?" His voice suddenly switched to a shrill tone. "Yes I do, Tuffnut. I wanna needlessly destroy other people's property with you." Tuffnut went back into his normal voice. "Oh, Macey. You get me." He cradled the weapon against his cheek, uncaring of the sharp spikes.

The older men dismissed the boy's. . . weirdness and went back to talking about the scrap metal. Seeing Gobber's excitement about it, Johann quickly changed his tune to make it sound more appealing. "I see you are a gentleman that recognizes quality when he sees it. This is the finest metal from the furthest reaches of the archipelago."

Johann flinched as the blacksmith bit down harshly on the blade of a broken sword. Whatever information that had given him seemed to do the trick as he announced, "I'll take it all."

Johann clapped his hands together happily. "Excellent! Always a pleasure, Mister Gobber."

Dany and Hiccup had moved on to pour over parchment, ink and charcoal for their respective hobbies. Toothless had followed them diligently as he knew about Drogon's mistrust of the trader. He kept an eye out for the extravagantly-dressed man so both of their riders would be safe. In doing so, he caught an odd scent that might have escaped him if he hadn't been paying such close attention: the smell of other dragons.

The Targaryen noticed Toothless' sudden movement away from them. Still holding the charcoal pencils, she trailed after the black dragon curiously. He sniffed the pile of scrap metal, then backed up with a growl. Daenerys would have gone to check on what had disturbed him had a loud crash! not suddenly disrupted the air.

Johann glared at Snotlout, who stood stick-straight as a plate spun by his feet, only to break once it had settled. Other (broken) items littered the floor around him. Despite being caught red-handed, he shuffled away from the mess with a protest of, "wasn't me!"

Johann let out a pained sigh at his lost goods. "I really hate that kid."

As everyone finished up their browsing (Hiccup had managed to convince Dany not to buy the carving set she'd been looking at, even if he it did make him feel guilty. He promised himself that his plan for Snoggletog would be well worth it), Gobber turned to the brunet after he'd been struggling to move the scrap pile for several minutes. "Hey, Hiccup. Do you think you could spare a hook, son?"

"Not a problem, Gobber!" He turned to his friends. "Hey, guys?"

Tuffnut hugged his new weapon. "Let's do this, Macey!"

Snotlout went to get on his dragon, but Gobber pulled him off with his hook. "Not so fast, you. I paid good money for this scrap; I'll not have you dropping it into the ocean."

🏹🏹🏹

Dany was happy to have seen Johann's wares but felt that it wasn't a repeat experience unless there was something she was specifically looking for— like a Snoggletog present for Hiccup. She still didn't know what to get him as a gift this year since it was different from all the other ones: she had feelings for him now and they weren't going away as quickly as she'd hoped they would. They lingered in her chest, making themselves known whenever she laid eyes on her best friend. What did one get their best-friend-but-more-than-that-but-also-nothing's-changed?

She couldn't give him a dragon carving every year; that just seemed lazy. Maybe a rock, but it would have to be a really special rock— like a crystal or something, and she wouldn't be able to afford it, anyway. Drawing supplies were always an easy answer but anyone would know to get him that— even the twins could manage to figure that out! And it wasn't like she could talk to him about what he wanted; he'd insist that he didn't need a present or whatever she got he would like.

The girl thought about this as she made her way into town the next morning. She'd landed some distance away so she could walk the rest on foot. There weren't many wildflowers at this time of year, but some still hung on before the harsh snows came. She wove whichever ones she found into her braids as her mind whirred with possible ideas. Drogon ambled along beside her, occasionally huffing out hot steam that warmed the air so she wouldn't get too cold.

Their pleasant morning walk was soon cut short as the noise from the village became clearer. Viking voices were raised to heated tones as they argued with each other. She frowned, both at the noise level and the topic that seemed to come up most often: missing objects. Leaning closer to Drogon (though it was entirely unnecessary with his sensitive hearing), she murmured, "remind me to start bringing my earmuffs whenever we leave the house."

Daenerys went over to where her friends had gathered at the same time Hiccup was joining them. "What did we just walk into?"

"Ah, a bunch of stuff got stolen from the village last night," Snotlout answered.

"Really?" Dany asked with a frown. "I don't think anything got stolen from my house."

"You do have three massive dragons guarding it," Astrid pointed out, teasingly rolling her eyes at her best friend. "But not everyone got off so easy; some of us are taking it pretty hard."

They turned to look at Tuffnut, who was kneeling in the dirt, sobbing wildly. In a great show of grief, he slammed his hands down on the cobblestone as his cries continued.

"Oh, Macey!" he wailed. "Macey! I. . . oh golly, she's gone. No!" Even Barf and Belch seemed weirded out by his behavior as they shared a glance. Ruffnut stood over her brother, staring at him with her arms crossed. Seeing her unmoved state, he suddenly whipped around to point accusingly at her. "You! You were always jealous of her! You knew that I loved her more because I told you every so often and I wrote it in your room on the wall."

Stoick came over to address the teens who still had their wits about them. "We've got quite a situation on our hands; axes, shields, helmets, drinking goblets— all stolen."

Hiccup repeated the list to himself thoughtfully before asking, "what do all those things have in common?"

Snotlout scoffed, banging his fist on his helmet. "Duh! They're all gone."

"No, they're metal," the brunet corrected him. "Everything that went missing was metal."

"Hiccup," Astrid said slowly, "everything we own is metal."

"I-It's a theory," he insisted, a little pleadingly, "work with me."

Dany glanced at Tuffnut, who was still sobbing over his mace. She gave him a disturbed look and then turned her head a little more to check her quiver, which was full of metal-tipped arrows. "I still have my weapons; whatever stole the things from the village must not have the means to get across the island— at least it's a contained threat."

"For now," the chief replied, keeping the possibility of additional thievery open. "Whatever's going on, I need to find who's responsible before this panic gets any worse."

"Stoick!" Gobber ran up to him, slightly out of breath. "Bucket and Mulch are slapping each other with sturgeons!"

They followed the blacksmith's pointing hook in the direction of the two men. It was rather a comical sight to see them exchanging the blows with fish, which made a wet, smacking sound with each hit. The chief, however, did not seem to see the humor in this as he asked seriously, "what happened to their bludgeons?"

"Stolen. Hence the sturgeon."

Stoick regarded them for a few more seconds before admitting thoughtfully, "in some ways, I guess that's probably better."

"Uh, dad?" Hiccup spoke up quickly, wanting to get started on helping the village. "What'ddya say you deal with the sturgeon slapping while Dany and I do a little investigating?"

Daenerys started a bit in surprise at the inclusion of her name; she'd expected him to go with Astrid since that seemed to be something more up her alley. "Me?"

"Yeah. So you can practice for, uh—" He broke off, glancing awkwardly at his father as his face flushed slightly. Clearing his throat, he hastily resumed speaking to cover up the break in his sentence: "Investigating." Hiccup winced at the poor excuse he'd come up with, but it couldn't be helped.

"Investigating?" the blonde asked as the others went to calm the villagers down. "Why do I need to practice that?"

"Let's return to the scenes of the crimes and see if we can find out something about this metal thief," he answered, pretending like he hadn't heard her question— he couldn't very well tell her what he'd been really going to say, about how he was trying to find jobs that would give her the practice and confidence to become (again, way, way in) the future chieftess.

She let her question go, deciding it wasn't important to press him on it. Instead, she grinned as they headed off to their first location. "They must not be very skilled thieves if they went with our metal. Astrid was right; they had their pick of it."

"But not everything was stolen," he reminded. "C'mon, Dany. Work with me, here."

"Oh, alright," the blonde gave in, not that she had put up much of a fight. 

🏹🏹🏹

They went to Gobber's forge first, which was a relief; at least it was a Viking she was familiar with (and they didn't start out by dealing with the twins' weirdness.) Dany let Hiccup take over the questioning while she poked around the shop looking for clues.

"Gobber, can you remember who's been here the last couple of days?"

The older man scratched his head carefully with his hooked hand as he thought. "Hmm. . . hard to say. Business has been booming. There's only forty-one days left until Snoggletog, you know? Don't wait until the last minute!"

"Don't remind me," Daenerys said with a sigh, thinking about the present she still had to get the boy next to her.

"You can never go wrong with a nice sword, lass," the blacksmith tried to cajole her and make another sale.

She glanced at Hiccup and shook her head; that wasn't the right gift, either. It had to be something rare— inventive, just like him. Any old sword— no matter how nice it was— simply wouldn't do. Not when he could make his own. The brunet joined her in looking around, studying the floor as her gaze flicked over the empty walls.

"No footprints," he commented.

Gobber trailed after them, boasting: "this metal thief won't get the best of me. I've set a booby trap that's guaranteed to nab him."

There was an audible clink sound. He froze suddenly, putting his hands up in the air as his eyes went wide. Dany turned sharply towards the sound, her gaze falling on the multitude of crossbows that were now aimed in the older man's direction. He laughed nervously. "It would appear that I have trapped myself in my own booby." Very slowly, he continued: "Nobody. . . move. . . a. . . muscle. . ."

"Do you want us to stayed and help or. . .?" Daenerys wondered, not especially keen on doing so. The thought of possibly having to touch the sweaty, unwashed Viking (no matter how good of a friend he was to the Haddocks) made her stomach turn.

Thankfully, he dismissed them. "No, no. If I got myself into this, then I can get myself out."

Taking him at his word— even as Hiccup opened his mouth to protest— she tugged her best friend out of the shop before he could insist. Their next stop was, unfortunately, the twins. It couldn't be put off any longer, so Dany braced herself for the uncomfortable lamentations of the eldest Thorston. He welcomed then in with a relieved, "it's about time you got here!"

He showed them over to the shrine he'd built in his weapons' honor. Tuffnut had obviously put a lot of work into the altar, which was covered with furs, painted shields and decorated with flowers. There was an empty shelf where the mace was supposed to lie and he gazed at it sadly.

"This is where Macey was before her. . ." He paused to pin his sister with a suspicious look. ". . . disappearance. Quote-unquote."

"I didn't steal your stupid mace!" Ruffnut retorted.

"This was her favorite spot," her brother went on, ignoring the reproach. Dany could've sworn that he sniffed a bit, but his back was to them. "She. . . just loved watching the sunsets. Or this wall, just depending on which side I put her on."

"This is weird," the Targaryen murmured to Hiccup.

"Yeah," he whispered back, "even for the twins."

Ruffnut heard their disturbed comments and she huffed at them. "Hey! Leave me out of this!"

They walked around the room to take in the details, just like they had at Gobber's forge. As the circumstances proved to be similar, Hiccup noted, "strange. No sign of forced entry, not a single footprint."

"And no eyewitnesses," the blonde added, "though they did come at night, so everyone was asleep. But nobody even heard anything, which is odd. Especially for metal thieves. You'd think something would've been clanged around."

Hiccup nodded in agreement, seeing the logic in her observation. "I just don't get it."

"I do," Ruffnut spoke up, causing them to turn to her. She scoffed at their perplexed looks . "It's so obvious. And you call yourselves detectives."

"First of all: no, we don't call ourselves detectives," the brunet corrected her. "Uh, and second: what's so obvious?"

She beckoned them closer. Hiccup moved towards her, but Dany stayed put, not wanting to get near the twins' faces— either of them. She could still hear the other girl, who stage-whispered her conclusion proudly: "what you're looking for is not just a metal thief, it's a ghost metal thief."

They left without questioning the siblings further. "Well, that was. . . helpful, as usual."

Dany frowned; she was pretty sure that was sarcasm in his tone— after all, the twins had given them about as much as Gobber had, which was nothing— but couldn't be certain. So, she nodded and changed the subject, not sure if his words needed a reply. "It's getting late," she observed instead. "We'll start again in the morning."

🏹🏹🏹

Things didn't get much better. When Dany arrived in town for the day— with wildflowers freshly woven into her braids— the arguing was almost worse than before. Luckily, she'd remembered to take her earmuffs this time and they were clamped over her ears so the noise was less of a disturbance. Drogon bared his teeth at any incensed Vikings that got too close, causing them to hastily scramble in the other direction. As Dany reached her friends, she slid one side of the earmuffs off her ear to hear their conversation.

"The thief hit you guys, too, huh?" Fishlegs asked melancholically.

It was then that the Targaryen realized her friends were missing their metal adornments. The boys' and Ruffnut's heads were bare of their helmets while Astrid was dressed in only her tunic, as her shoulder pads had been taken as well. She thought that the other teens looked quite odd without their usual accessories and was glad that she still had her bow and arrows strapped across her back.

"I feel naked without my helmet," Snotlout whined.

"Me too," Tuffnut said. "But, I made a sketch of the thief. It came to me in a dream. You see, my subconscious has been working overtime, like a sports team that just can't win."

He withdrew a scroll from his pocket and unrolled it to reveal it to them proudly. Daenerys was surprised by how good the drawing actually was; she hadn't been certain if the twins had any talents besides mischief-making. But still, the depiction on the parchment didn't really help their case as Astrid pointed out, "um. . . Tuffnut? That's you."

"No, it's not."

"Uh, yes, it is," Fishlegs insisted.

"No, it isn't. I think I would know myself if I—" Tuffnut glanced at the drawing again. Then he put his nose against the page to study it more closely. "Huh. I guess it is. Yep."

Wing-beats made them look up just in time to see Toothless' arrival. Hiccup didn't waste any time in addressing them, speaking as soon as the Night Fury touched the ground. "Hey, guys. I know who the thief is. Or, should I say, I know who our thieves are." When no one seemed to come to the answer with his clue, he explained, "adolescent Smokebreath dragons."

"Of course!" Fishlegs and Daenerys exclaimed, the former going on to say: "Smokebreaths steal metal to build their nests."

She remembered all too well their last encounter with them on Breakneck Bog. But they weren't native to this archipelago so how did that explain their sudden presence? Stoick seemed to come to the same conclusion as he asked, "but why would Smokebreaths be on Berk?"

"Chief, coming in for the big win!" the Ingerman cheered. "Smothering Smokebreaths normally don't stray too far from their home on Breakneck Bog."

"That's the part I'm still unclear about," Hiccup admitted.

"I've been robbed!" The shout made them turn to see Gobber hustling towards them, his peg leg thumping rhythmically against the ground. "The thief evaded my booby trap and took all the metal I bought from Trader Johann. Left me with ne'ery a scrap of. . . scrap!"

Dany thought about the last time Trader Johann had come to the island. He'd brought Blue Oleander, which was poisonous to their dragons. Now he'd come again, this time bearing scrap metal that put them at risk. She considered Drogon's mistrust of the man and his reluctance to let her near him. Either the trader was very stupid, or. . .

Well, would anyone believe her? All the Berkians loved it when he came to their shores and wouldn't hear a bad word about him. They certainly wouldn't trust her word— a Targaryen's— over a man whom they'd known for decades and brought them treasures from around the world. At least Hiccup appeared to be thinking similarly (though perhaps not as suspicious about Johann's loyalties as Dany was) since he and his father went to talk to the merchant. 

🏹🏹🏹

While they waited for Hiccup to get back with the chief, the teens assessed the newest development— and things weren't looking good. All of their wooden furniture— from benches to wagons to water buckets— fell apart the second anyone tried to use them. There were almost no weapons in the village, save for Dany's bow and arrows. One desperate Viking had tried to seize them from her only to have his beard burned off when Drogon blew a curl of flame in his direction. He'd run off screaming about 'Targaryens and their madness.'

Finally, the chief's son returned. They gathered at the academy so he could fill them in on Johann's misguided purchase. Dany considered the boy's words, wondering if someone so stupid had the brains for treachery, but she decided that it wasn't out of the question— it didn't take skill to be evil.

"That doesn't sound good for our defenses," she noted. "Six dragons and a quiver full of arrows isn't going to be enough whenever Dagur does come knocking. He's got both the Berserker and Outcast armadas now."

"Yeah, we know," Snotlout grumbled. "There's no need to rub the numbers in our faces."

"Dany's right," Hiccup said as he paced in front of the group. "We have to find that missing metal. Especially the weapons."

Tuffnut let out a desolate sigh. "Macey must be so alone and scared out there. It's hard out there for a mace." He buried his face in his hands and warbled out his weapon's name. Overcome by emotion, he turned to bury his face against his dragon's neck.

Astrid rolled her eyes at him and got back on track, suggesting: "maybe the Smokebreaths took the metal back to Breakneck Bog."

"I don't think so." They looked over at Fishlegs as he spoke, his head still bent over the Book of Dragons as he searched for clues. "Smokebreaths can't fly long distances carrying a lot of weight."

"So they didn't leave Berk," Dany concluded. "Well, at least that means we don't have to fight off the adolescents and the ones we encountered in that cave."

Ruffnut upheld the twins' usual flighty attention span. She wasn't even paying attention to the conversation, her gaze focused on what the Jorgenson was wearing. "Hey, Snotlout, how'd you get your helmet back?"

He laughed at her in response, pushing his helmet higher on his forehead. "It's my spare. A real warrior is never without his helmet."

"Can't say the same for his brain," Astrid muttered snarkily. Dany turned her face away to hide the amused quirk of her lips.

"What is it with you today?" the shorter Viking demanded. "You are so much—" Before he could finish, Stormfly shot out a spine at him and struck the spare helmet. He glared at the Deadly Nadder and her rider, adjusting the headwear once more. "Hey!"

"Snotlout, come on," Hiccup scolded him exasperatedly. "Please focus."

"Come on. Really?" Stormfly shot another spike, causing him to growl at the pair in irritation.

The brunet ignored their antics and instead nodded at Daenerys. "Dany was on the right track. Since they couldn't fly far the Smokebreaths must be somewhere on the island."

"Awesome!" Tuffnut cheered, raising his hands in celebration. At their deadpan stares, he lowered them sheepishly. "Not awesome?"

"Definitely not awesome," Astrid confirmed. "How are we gonna find them? They could be anywhere."

"Well, there's only one way to catch a metal thief. And that's—"

"Wait! Don't tell me," Tuffnut interrupted the chief's son, putting his hands out to stop him. He declared confidently, "with a. . . net!" Then he changed his mind. "No, no, no, no, with a rope!" He interpreted Hiccup's annoyed stare as encouragement to keep guessing. "Okay! Oh, oh, don't say it! With a ropey-net!"

The brunet arched a brow at him. "I-I was just gonna say with metal."

Tuffnut groaned in frustration. "It was on the tip of my tongue! Stupid tongue." He turned to his sister, still with his tongue stuck out. His words came out a bit garbled as he demanded, "flick it. Come on, flick it." She smirked at him happily and complied. He let out a cry of pain, but then nodded in a satisfied way. "Oh, yeah."

Sighing, Hiccup resumed the discussion. "So, we need to gather all the metal from the arena, and bait a trap that the Smokebreaths won't be able to resist. We lure them in, let them take the metal, and follow them right back to the nest and all our missing weapons."

"You did say all the metal, right, Hiccup?" Astrid asked, facing the Jorgenson with a smirk. The boy had stopped paying attention, too invested in shining up his helmet to care about their conversation. He whistled idly as he scratched at it, only to become slowly aware of Astrid's pointed look.

"What?" He rolled his eyes upwards to follow her line of sight. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. What about his leg? That's made of metal."

"Snotlout!"

The boy in question shrugged carelessly as Hookfang followed the other riders out of the arena. "All I'm saying is, fair is fair."

"Snotlout, please!"

🏹🏹🏹

That night, they hid behind nearby barrels to keep an eye on their gathered pile of metal. The rest of the village's Vikings were in their homes, so the main square was empty, dark and still— except for their trap.

"I still think we should've flipped a yak pie for it," Snotlout grumbled as Astrid returned to their hiding place, having just put his helmet on top.

"Shh," Hiccup hissed as smoke filled the clearing. "It looks like they're taking the bait."

The cloud of dragons enveloped the pile of metal, making faint clinking sounds as they picked up the pieces. As they waited for the right moment to strike, Hiccup took the opportunity to remind them: "okay. Very important: no one do absolutely anything until I give the signa—"

There was a shout from above them. The group turned to watch the twins soar straight into the cloud, gas spewing from Barf's mouth. Seconds later, they saw the explosion.

"Yet another plan, perfectly executed," the brunet remarked dryly. "Dragons, everyone!"

As Dany scrambled up Drogon's leg, she could hear the twins shouting amidst the chaos they'd created. The smoke began to dissipate to reveal the siblings holding onto each other's legs. But Hiccup was focused on their target, which was getting away. "Look, there they go! Follow them!"

They shot off after the Smokebreaths. It was hard flying for Drogon because of the smaller dragons' speed. They got further behind, letting the Night Fury take the lead. Dany kept her eyes trained on the cloud as it twisted and turned, outlined by the light of the full moon. As if sensing their pursuers gaining on them, the Smokebreaths dove down into the trees that were passing underneath.

"Everyone, split up!" Hiccup called to them, darting after the cluster of fog nearest to him.

Daenerys chose the outer bunch that was peeling off towards the left. The other riders' movements and shouts became fainter as Drogon thundered after them. His wing-beats drowned out the chittering sound of the Smokebreaths, making it hard to track the small dragons. She wasn't surprised when the cloud dispersed just off the shoreline, the outline of it lost amongst the ripple of waves.

She grumbled a little in disappointment but she trusted that one of the other riders would be able to find the nest. As she turned around to head back to Berk, her gaze caught on an outline of something else on the water. She patted her pockets for her spyglass and pulled it out, pleased that she'd decided to go with useful things today rather than her carving supplies. Dany focused the lens on the distant objects.

There were a lot of them; small, black dots that stood out against the stars. They were moving towards Berk— how fast, she couldn't tell. It didn't take long for her to recognize the outline of a sail and the hull of a boat. Urging Drogon out over the water— but still far enough that the ships wouldn't be able to see her— she strained to see the insignia on the sail. One boat passed under a shaft of particularly bright moonlight and she gasped, nearly dropping her spyglass. Of course, she'd thought it might be Dagur, but she'd hoped against hope that she was wrong. Unfortunately, she wasn't.

The Targaryen wheeled Drogon around. Patting her dragon between the shoulder blades, she apologized guiltily, "I'm sorry, bud. We're going to have to do a bit more fast flying tonight; we've gotta catch up to Hiccup."

Drogon let out a snort that was either 'I can do this' or 'screw you, mom.' Either way, he picked up his pace. The night wind whipped through her hair— which remained blessedly out of her face, thanks to Astrid's braiding tips— but she couldn't even enjoy her nighttime flight with the threat of war on the horizon. Dany was entirely focused on finding Hiccup, which luckily wasn't too hard with Toothless' plasma blasts marking his location every so often.

She hovered Drogon right above him and he stopped having Toothless shoot as he recognized her dragon's large shadow. Raising her voice so he could hear her, she called out, "thank Thor I finally caught up to you!"

His voice was just as rushed as he replied, "I-I found the Smokebreath nest, and—"

"We don't have time for that now!" she cut across him.

Hiccup's brows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"When I was chasing the Smokebreaths, they lead me out to sea. There's more than thirty ships out there! Dagur's ships!"

🏹🏹🏹

"What is this guy, the king of armadas?" Hiccup wondered as he peered through Dany's spyglass. The sun was rising now, so it was easier to make out the Skrill emblem on the sails. "Does he go anywhere without one?"

"It's like he knew we'd be defenseless," Astrid stated.

"He did," Daenerys muttered, thinking about her suspicions.

Hiccup's eyes widened at her words and a thought appeared to occur to him. Together, the trio went to the chief, who was still dealing with the missing metal. After filling him in on the approaching fleet, the brunet continued, "Trader Johann said he bought the scrap metal from a Berserker."

"And it was from Breakneck Bog," Fishlegs added.

"Dagur planted those dragons," Astrid concluded. "He knew what they would do."

More than just Dagur, the Targaryen thought.

Stoick considered their words as he came up with a plan. "Hiccup, you found the Smokebreath nest. You and the other riders go to it and get our weapons."

Immediately, his son shook his head. "They'll be protecting it by now. We don't have enough time to deal with the Smokebreaths and get back here before Dagur attacks."

"Then I say we go out there and blast those Berserkers with what we've got!" Snotlout declared, eager to get the battle under way.

It was Dany's turn to shake her head. "There's too many ships out there. We won't be able to take them out alone even with all of our dragons."

"Well, if we cut ourselves in half, we'd be. . ." Tuffnut tried to count the numbers on his fingers, but doing that sort of calculation proved to be too difficult for him. In the end, he settled for saying, ". . .twice as many!" and held up two fingers proudly.

Astrid sighed. "Just once, try stopping it between here, and here." She pointed first to her head, then to her mouth.

Tuffnut copied her gesture, looking as if she'd just told him the most confusing thing on earth. Hiccup stared at the blond as an idea came to him. "No, he's. . . actually on to something."

"See?" the older twin said triumphantly. "I'll get an axe."

"What? No!" Hiccup exclaimed quickly. "We don't need an axe— we don't need more of us. We need more dragons."

The chief regarded his son thoughtfully. "What are you saying, Hiccup?"

"Why fight against the Smokebreaths, when we can fight with them?" He turned to the village, addressing them in a loud voice: "everyone, bring any metal you might still have in your houses. It doesn't matter how small it is."

Stoick supported him by shouting, "you heard my son!"

The Berkians leapt into action. Everyone gathered as much metal as possible; Dany even added her arrows to the mix. They piled the metal into nets, which they had their dragons carry by their talons. The riders followed Hiccup's lead as he guided them towards the Smokebreaths' nest.

Luckily, it didn't take long for the metal-loving dragons to scent their newest trap. Instead of letting the Smokebreaths take the metal from them like last time, the teens lead them towards the awaiting armada. Dagur watched their approach with a smirk, thinking it would be an easy defeat. He was sorely mistaken when the Berkians flew over him, dropping their rain of metal objects onto his ships.

The riders grinned at their victory as, below them, the ships burst apart at the seams— all thanks to the Smokebreaths' handiwork.