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Chapter 8

Hiccup explained his story to them as quickly as he could, not letting them get a word in edgewise. He talked until the sun rose the next day. Heather stared at him and Hiccup avoided meeting her gaze. "So," Sven said as soon as Hiccup finished completely. "What you're telling us is that you left Berk the night before you had to kill a Monstrous Nightmare, no one on Berk understood you, your birth mother is dead and your real dad is still alive and doesn't give a damn about you." Hiccup nodded. "And you were bullied." Heather added in quietly. "That too." Sven added. "You should let your father know that you're ..." "No." Hiccup said forcefully, causing his friends to lean back with alarm. "I'm not going back there. I have no reason to." Just then, Skap burst into the room. "Chief! Berserkers off of our Northern shores!" 

Hiccup cursed. He whistled for Toothless and climbed onto his back. "Hic- Baldur, you're not well enough to fight!" Heather protested, pointing to his wooden foot. "Heather, we can talk about this later. Right now, our home is in danger of being destroyed. Let's go Toothless!"

Flying Toothless with his new prosthetic was harder than Hiccup would have liked to admit. He swerved around and very nearly crashed the two of them out of the sky, forcing Heather to send them onto the ground to work ground defenses, much to Hiccup's chargin. He winced as Sven and Heather dodged arrows and boulders and the like until he heard a roar. It was loud and sent a message leave. A strange dragon appeared, with a masked rider on its back. The dragon fired at the ships, sending Dagur and his fleet scurrying away. The dragon landed peacefully on the docks and started purring to the Wilderwest dragons. The rider pulled off their mask, revealing a woman around 40 with long brown hair and eyes that flickered between blue and green. She opened her mouth to speak before noticing something on Hiccup's face. The woman looked up at him and whispered in a hoarse voice, "Hiccup?"