chapter 1

During a foggy night, the Dragon Riders tracked down another Dragon Trapper ship to raid. The one they found was at a stand-still in the waters, filled with cages that held dragons in each one. Hiccup and Kala snuck on board ahead of the others, landing silently and splitting up from one another once Kala had dismounted Hiccup's back.

As the two Night Furies snuck on board, one of the Dragon Trappers was patrolling the ship. A dragon roared in frustration as he passed by the cage it resided in and he tapped on the cage rudely.

"Quiet!" He said in a harsh tone, not noticing Kala just ahead of him in the fog.

Right as the Trapper was about to continue down the deck, he saw Kala light up her Inferno. The sight he got was a person fully armored, face out of sight and all. Her armor consisted of a mixture of her and Hiccup's scales, which covered the armor from head to toe. Her helmet had red markings above the eye sockets that came off as eyes themselves and on her sides there was red leather that was in a scale pattern. And it wouldn't be complete without the red Night Fury curled in midair on her right shoulder.

"What are you?" The Trapper asked as he took in the woman in front of him, not actually knowing it was a woman.

"Shh!" Kala said with an armored finger to her helmet where her mouth would be.

Hiccup climbed down from a cage behind her with his head and back fins glowing a toxic green. Seeing the aglow dragon sunk fear into the Trapper and he went to attack Kala, who dodged the attack and accidentally knocked a lamp over, causing the deck to burst into flames.

The Trapper then backed away breathing heavily, thinking he was given time to get away to warn the others. But that thought was crushed as Hiccup and Kala walked through the flames like it wasn't even there, thanks to their scales.

"AHH! YOU'RE A DEMON!"

Kala froze when she heard him call her a demon, memories flooding back to her from everything Astrid put her through five years prior. She only broke out of her thoughts when she heard Hiccup growl at the man before them.

"Shhh! Shh, shh, shh! No, no! I'm not a demon! I'm not a demon!" Kala said frantically as she removed her mask, which now rested atop her helmet. "See? Just a girl! Just a girl, here to rescue these dragons, so…"

"But you walked through fire!" The Trapper argued.

"Dragon scales! Dragons shed a lot." Kala explained as she gestured to her armor.

"Ooh! I know a demon when I see one! No human legs are that skinny!"

Kala looked at her legs then gave the Trapper a deadpanned look. 'Is this guy for real right now?'

When the Trapper went to run from the Night Furies, Snotlout and Hookfang landed in his path, Hookfang's body set ablaze to intimidate the man. Snotlout was also covered head to toe in dragon scale armor made of Hookfang's scales.

"Think that's a good entrance? Get a load of me!" Snotlout exclaimed smugly, but that smugness was wiped away when his butt caught fire from Hookfang's flames. "Aah!"

Snotlout then proceeded to jump off Hookfang's back and run away to try and douse the flames.

"AAH! I KNEW IT! MORE DEMONS?!" The Trapper shouted as he cowered away from the Nightmare and Night Furies.

Kala facepalmed as her soon to be cousin-in-law ran off, her mate huffing as his reaction.

"No, that's really just a nitwit who forgot to fireproof his butt." Kala said exasperatedly.

" That's what he gets for not listening to me when I said to fireproof his entire body. " Hiccup muttered.

"Hot! Hot, hot, hot!" Snotlout complained as he tried to put out the fire on his armor. He then noticed the twins coming to land and waved at them to try and get them to stop. "Guys! No! Not yet!"

Barf and Belch then created a little explosion, which Hiccup shielded Kala from with his wings. The explosion also knocked Snotlout down as the twins dismounted from their Zippleback, clad in dragon scale armor of their own made up of Barf and Belch's scales.

"Behold, your worst nightmare…" Tuffnut said menacingly.

"Behold–" Ruffnut began, but Tuffnut cut her off.

"...along with his sister who insisted on coming."

Hiccup and Kala gave them deadpanned expressions as Hiccup folded in his wings once he knew Kala was safe from the explosion.

"That's my intro?" Ruffnut asked, a bit irritated.

"Guys! Too soon. You always come in too soon!" Kala said irritably with a huff.

Fishlegs then landed on his back in front of the female Night Fury, slipping across the deck from a failed attempt at a landing. The armor he wore was also covered in dragon scales that belonged to Meatlug, but one thing that stood out was the hatchling carrier that he had attached to the armor which housed a Gronckle hatchling by the name of Fishmeat.

" Oh you have got to be kidding… " Hiccup said when he saw Fishmeat.

"Sorry, still getting the hang of my wings." Fishlegs apologized as he got up.

"Fishlegs, again with the baby? This is a raid. It's not safe for him." Kala said with a glare.

"I couldn't find a sitter." He reasoned, which earned an eye roll from both of the Night Furies.

The Trapper became terrified at the thought of even more 'demons' coming to attack him and began to run away. "DEMONS EVERYWHERE! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!"

Before he could get any further, Nanna jumped down from a cage and pushed the Trapper against it, knocking him unconscious.

"Nanna! I had him right where I wanted him." Kala said as she approached her friend.

Nanna lifted her mask with a smirk directed to the young dragon. She too was clad in dragon scale armor that was made up of Stormfly's scales. "And now he's right where I wanted him. Still makes no sense to me that Hiccup let you come along in your condition, but here we are." She said with a shrug. "Let's just get to work, yeah?"

Kala sighed then nodded. "Okay, we screwed that up. But at least nobody else knows we're here."

The riders then split up to release the dragons, but Hiccup stayed by Kala's side to keep her safe. But what the riders didn't see was the other Trappers running towards them from the other side of the ship.

Kala unlocked a cage that had a Scuttleclaw inside. The dragon cowered away from her with a growl.

" Stay away! " The dragon, who seemed to be female by the sound of her voice, said between her growls.

"Easy, girl. It's okay." Kala soothed as she approached the Scuttleclaw and rested her free hand on her snout. "We're gonna get you out of here."

The dragon calmed from her touch and purred softly. " You're one of us? But you look like the Trappers. "

" It's a long story. " Hiccup said as Kala got the Scuttleclaw out of the chains.

On another part of the ship, Fishlegs opened up a rather large cage and became rather excited as he noticed what kind of dragon was within.

"Ooh! A Crimson Goregutter! Ooooh, hoo, hoo!"

Fishmeat became excited as well, yipping energetically at the larger dragon. The Goregutter looked at the hatchling in bewilderment as Fishlegs went to work at removing the chains from him.

Nearby, Ruffnut was looking at a Hobgobbler that was within the cage before her.

"Ha. Ha. Look at this weirdo. I bet it's super dumb." She then tried to open the cage, but couldn't seem to figure out how the cage worked. "Why can't I get this cage open?"

Nanna then went over to the female Thorston after releasing another dragon with a soft smile. "It slides Ruff." She then opened the cage for her.

"Obviously." Ruffnut said with an embarrassed laugh then she entered the cage and released the Hobgobbler.

As the riders were distracted by releasing the dragons, the Trappers were able to get to the area of the ship they were on.

"Attack!" One of them yelled, which gained the attention of the riders.

"Get the rescued out of here!" Kala ordered as she and Hiccup dodged Trappers.

"Get the Night Fury!" Another Trapper shouted as he took notice of Hiccup as he protected Kala from getting hit as the fight commenced.

One of the Trappers ended up falling in front of Tuffnut in all the chaos of the fight.

"No running on the deck! It's slippery. You can fall." He said with a bit of a jokeful air about him.

"Step aside!" Snotlout yelled as he pushed Ruffnut out of the way as some Trappers came at them. "Let me handle the tough guy stuff!"

Ruffnut scoffed as she whacked the head of a Trapper in annoyance, knocking him out in the process.

Just as Snotlout was about to lose against the Trappers, Hookfang spewed fire at them, saving his stubborn rider from getting badly hurt by the enemy.

"Yee-ha! That's two for me!" Snotlout bragged.

Fishlegs took on his own Trappers with the help of the Goregutter, who seemed to have grown an interest in helping him to protect his Gronckle hatchling.

"Look out!" Fishlegs shouted to the others, who ducked as the Goregutter tossed Trappers overboard, the Trappers flying over the riders' heads as they were flung through the air.

Hiccup, Kala and Nanna fought together, although to Kala it seemed like the two were trying to keep her from even engaging in the fight as they took on a Trapper any time they even tried getting close to her. It peeved her a bit. Sure, Hiccup being like this made sense, but Nanna?

Nanna then knocked out the Trapper that she had been fighting off for the past couple minutes, wiping at her forehead. "I thought this was supposed to be a stealth mission!"

"Yeah, they always start out that way." Kala said as she was able to actually knock out one of the Trappers herself as one slipped past her mate and friend.

" Look out, love! " Hiccup screeched as a weapon was thrown in her direction.

Kala dodged it with ease and smiled at him in appreciation.

Just as a Trapper was about to strike at Nanna without her knowledge, Stormfly swooped in and grabbed him then proceeded to toss him into the ocean.

"Thanks, Stormfly!" Her rider thanked.

While all of this was going on, Valka and Cloudjumper were watching from above atop one of the masts of the ship. Cloudjumper whimpered in concern for the riders as the fight continued and Valka patted his head.

"Oh, stop worrying. They'll get it." She reassured her dragon.

As if to prove the chieftess wrong, the fight below her and Cloudjumper became progressively worse.

Snotlout somehow ended up atop a cage and let out a battle cry as he ran and jumped off said cage, throwing his hammer at the same time. But as he jumped, the cape of his armor got caught on the cage, leaving him dangling.

"Eventually." Valka added with a sigh.

Kala then noticed that they managed to empty all the cages during the fight and all the rescued dragons were airborne. "Move out! We got them all!" She ordered, which the dragons heard and proceeded to get their respective riders.

"I'm gonna headlock every last one of you." Tuffnut said as Belch grabbed him by the back of his armor and lifted him, his body flailing as he tried to fight the Trapper in front of him. "I might even leglock you!"

As her twin was going off, Ruffnut gladly mounted Barf and rolled her eyes as the Zippleback took to the skies.

"Amateurs!" Snotlout exclaimed as Hookfang got him down from the cage and took off as well. "I was just getting started."

"Clear out, guys! Go! Go!" Nanna said as she mounted Stormfly and ushered her to take flight.

Fishlegs then mounted Meatlug as she landed and followed the Lykke's lead.

As Kala went to mount Hiccup's back, the both of them froze then turned their attention to what seemed to be an empty cage that wasn't opened.

Kala tilted her head curiously, but shook it as Hiccup broke out of the trance as well and nudged her towards his back. She then mounted his back and they took off to catch up with the others, not noticing the pair of blue eyes that opened within the empty cage and watched them fly off.

~~~HTLANF~~~