I covered my mouth to keep everyone from seeing me yawn as I attempted to keep my eyes open and on Gobber. For whatever reason, he'd decided our lesson for today should be early in the morning. The sky was just beginning to gain its colors when Gobber began to teach us. Three dragon traps were laid out before him. He stared down at the large jaws of one for a few seconds, then stepped onto the trigger, causing the metal to snap shut above him, catching its hook hand.

"Ah! Ow, the pain!" he screamed. Everyone grimaced and looked away from the scene, despite the fact no actual damage had been done to Gobber's body. "The horror!" Satisfied with his theatrics, Gobber began to laugh and pried the spiky ends away from his hook. "Don't soil your skivvies. I was just playing around. But these dragon traps are made to withstand the toughest of... well, dragons. They're nothing to play around with." Hiccup and I glanced at each other with a shrug.

"Uh, I beg to differ." I shook my head at Tuff. "That one with all the teeth on it's got 'Tuffnut' written all over it."

"Exactly what I was thinking," his sister cackled. I would've had a more outward reaction to the twins' antics, but it was just too early for that.

"You two can feel free to experiment on your own time. Now, who can tell me what this trap is called?"

"Ruffnut-be-gone." Ruff reached out and slapped her brother's ear. "Ow! My lobe..."

"It's called a Snapper," Fishlegs answered, waving his hand around in the air. I was impressed he could still remember that sort of thing, given not only how long it had been since we'd used them, but also how much he'd always loved dragons. His fascination had kept him away from killing them, but I suppose he just picked up on the information from background noise.

"Potato, potahto."

"Hey, guys, this is really important, okay?" Hiccup scolded. "Eyes forward."

I held back the urge to snicker at him, but he still caught my smirk. He sounded like a parent scolding his children. Then again, that's exactly what they were acting like.

"No problemo." They rammed their helmets against each other's, suddenly engaging in an intense staring contest. I knew this wasn't what Hiccup meant, but if it got them to be quiet, I was on board.

"Other traps include ropers, grabbers, and netters," Fishlegs rattled on.

"Ah! Well done, Fishlegs," Gobber praised. "But remembering how to unset them, that's what separates the men from the maimed."

Fishlegs stepped up to aid in the demonstration, when Meatlug flew up behind him and nudged his back. She let out a tiny whine, her eyelids lowered in concern.

"Oh, it's all right, girl. Daddy will be fine." He kissed what I presumed was Meatlug's cheek before beckoning for Astrid. The two of them made their way over to the roper trap. "For the roper, press your foot against the activation lock." He made a bit of a show of demonstrating.

"Then, remove the latch key, which takes tension off the trigger." Astrid dangled the silver key from her fingertips, the light making it look as though it were brand new. "Then you can cut the rope."

"Someone's been paying attention." Gobber made his way over to the most complicated trap out of the three in front of us. "And what about the notorious netter trap?" Hiccup started to make his way over, but Snotlout stuck his arm out in front of him, interrupting his confident stride.

"Uh-uh-uh, I got this one." Hiccup gestured his arms out toward the trap as I made my way over to him.

"Please, be my guest."

"Is it wrong to root for the trap?" I snickered, leaning against his shoulder with one of my arms. Eventually, he'd be taller than me- his growth spurt needed to hit first- so I needed to take advantage of these moments when I could.

"Well, let's just call it a teaching moment." We watched as Snotlout wandered his way around the trap, making a full assessment of it before trying to disable the trap.

"Okay. It's pretty simple, actually." He seemed confident now, but I had to wonder where that would go in a few seconds. "You just detach the ropey-chain looking thing, pull the pointy part back, then-" He took a step forward onto the net, and it snapped up, trapping him inside. He kicked and flailed as though that were going to get him down. "Hookfang, you gonna get me out of here?" His dragon responded by grumbling and walking away. "Any time."

"Hiccup? You want to release the beast?" I moved from my position and crossed my arms.

"That's not absolutely necessary, is it?" Hiccup shook his head at me, then motioned for Toothless to follow. He hopped up onto his dragon's back and used him to boost himself up onto the point where the net was cinched.

"Okay... engage the safety pin, dislodge the trigger strike..." The net released, sending Snotlout crashing to the floor.

"Teacher's pet," he scoffed. Hiccup jumped down from the netter and pointed toward the snapper. "Toothless, plasma blast!" He fired right onto the trigger, clamping its jaws shut and rendering it useless. "Good job, bud." Gobber propped the trap back up and released it.

"Right. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, show me how to unset this snapper trap." The twins somehow had not moved from their positions, and something told me neither of them had blinked yet.

"Can't." Tuffnut help up his index finger, as though that would completely silence everyone. "Staring contest."

"Now!"

"Fine," Ruff sighed. "You don't have to get so testy."

The two of them inched their way over to the trap, helmets still connected. They stepped into the trap, for whatever reason, and their feet pressed down on the trigger, snapping it shut on the horns of their helmets and flinging them into the mouths of Barf and Belch.

"You almost cut off my head!"

"Now that would've been stare worthy." Ruff shrugged her shoulders casually. "Ah, next time."

"All right, listen here. You all have your assignments." Gobber hobbled his way over to the map he'd marked with various red dots, sprinkled all over Berk. "There are dozens of dragon traps left over from, well... when we killed them. But, since we don't... well, kill them anymore, we thought it might be a good idea to get rid of them before some wild dragon wanders into them and gets caught. So get going!" Gobber gestured his hook hand out, accidentally knocking over the map.

I strode over to Shriek and looked down at her with a smile. Despite the trouble they could get into, the dragons had made our lives better. It'd been hard to adjust to the idea of them being a part of our lives- it seems like just yesterday, Hiccup was taking me on that first flight on Toothless- but they'd made everything easier, and every day some sort of adventure. Taking down the traps was a huge step in the right direction, and one I was glad Chief Stoick himself had suggested.

I'd been waiting for Hiccup, so we could get started on dismantling the traps, but I noticed he was over by the twins, wearing a look in his face that indicated he was ready to scold.

"You guys know what you're doing, right?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"A necessary one," I retorted, crossing my arms and glaring at them.

"You have absolutely no idea, do you?" The grilling of the twins wouldn't stop until Hiccup got a truthful answer. These traps were just as dangerous for people as they were for dragons, and one wrong move could buy you a one-way ticket to Valhalla.

"Absolutely-"

"-no idea," Ruffnut admitted with a roll of her eyes. Barf and Belch stooped down to give their riders back their helmets.

"Guys, we're clearing dragon traps. It's very dangerous-- for you, and for your dragon." The twins glanced up at their dragon, then back to Hiccup with confused looks on their faces, as though they didn't get what was going on. "You know what? Forget it. You guys stay here where you can't get into trouble."

"Actually, we can get into trouble pretty much anywhere." I didn't doubt Tuffnut's words for a second. "Remember that empty room?"

"He's got a point."

"Look, I-I just don't know if I can trust you guys out there right now. This is... serious." The twins' expressions fell.

"Wow. That was... harsh."

"Yeah, ouch."

"Yeah, no, I didn't mean it like that, it's just-"

"No, we get it," Tuffnut interrupted. "You think we're useless." He waved his hand toward himself, and Barf and Belch ducked their heads down, allowing the twins to get up on their saddles.

"I didn't say that."

"But you were thinking it," I taunted.

"That's not helping me at all." He focused back on our points of interest for this conversation.

"We'll be fine, Hiccup. It's not like we never pay attention."

"Just... rarely." Barf and Belch turned and padded out of the Academy, leaving Hiccup and I to stare as their figures retreated. They were gonna get hurt out there, but that wasn't our fault. They needed to pay attention once in a while, then maybe we'd trust them to do even just simple tasks.

"You know, I'm actually gonna miss them when they don't come back."

"Reign..." Hiccup's tone was scolding.

"What? We both know they're going to get themselves hurt."

"And you don't seem to care all that much." I scuffed my boot against the ground as I turned to meet his green eyes.

"Of course I care, Hiccup. I just think it's borderline shocking they haven't learned there are consequences to their actions.... or lack thereof." Hiccup chuckled and shook his head as he turned to get up onto Toothless. "What?"

"You sound so much older than you are," he teased. My nose instinctually crinkled in disgust as he said that. Growing up didn't appeal to me at the moment, and as best as I could, I'd put off remembering it had to happen eventually.

"Never say that again."

I swung my leg over Shriek and positioned myself onto her saddle before taking off beside Hiccup. Gobber had, conveniently, assigned Hiccup and I areas to search that just happened to be right next to each other. In fact, they were so close that most of the specific trap points overlapped. Hiccup and I had decided to just tackle all of them together, since there was really no point in handling one or two traps on our own, and then attempting to compete for the last several dozen. Besides, Shriek didn't have any sort of firepower, in the literal sense of the word, so having Toothless there would be a huge help for both of us.

"I see one right over there." I pointed to the big, obvious snapper trap with a fish stuck on its trigger, just barely visible under the cover the trees provided. The two of us landed and hopped off our dragons, hoping to get this done quickly. Toothless eyed the fish with dilated pupils, licking his chops as he attempted to control his aggressive salivating. Hiccup rested a hand on his dragon's neck-- a silent reassurance he'd get his fish later.

"All right, bud. Blast it!" Toothless shot a plasma blast at the trigger, slamming the trap's jagged jaws shut and blackening the lure on top of it. "Good work."

A gust of wind suddenly pushed against us, strong enough to cause Hiccup to nearly lose his footing. Unlike the wind that normally danced through Berk, this one was hot, dry as a dragon's scales. I glanced at Hiccup, who shared my worried expression. We both knew what this wind brought.

"Did you feel that, bud?"

Sure enough, a small patch of ground had ignited, unsuspectingly flickering with campfire like flames. Hiccup quickly rushed over to stop it out before it could spread and cause damage to the forest.

"There's a dry, hot wind coming in from the north." I held my hand up, attempting to feel the choking breeze and it darted toward us. "It hasn't rained for two months. This is definitely fire weather."

Despite our job not being done, Hiccup and I calmly got back up on our dragons.

"Let's get back to the village and find my dad," Hiccup suggested. We turned back around and headed toward home, hoping to catch the chief in time to take precautionary measures. A forest fire could reach the village in no time if we weren't prepared to stop it, bringing destruction and death along with it.

The two of us landed on the docs to find Chief Stoick standing in place, looking as though he were supervising something. Whatever it was, the large mass of his body blocked the event, keeping Hiccup and I from being aware of the situation.

"Uh, Dad, I-I need to talk to you." Hiccup sounded nervous, even though he had no reason to be. After all, he hadn't broken or messed anything up, and he couldn't control the weather, so it's not like the potential for fires was his fault.

"No time to talk, son." The chief raised his hand up to keep Hiccup from continuing without having to turn around. "Fire weather." We peered around the side of his dad to see that Vikings were preparing hundreds of barrels and buckets of water, preparing for the worst. Hiccup looked up at Chief Stoick with a slightly shocked expression as he tore his eyes from the scene.

"How'd you know that?"

"Gobber, show them." Gobber suddenly came up behind us, causing me to jump as the beat of my heart inarguably took a few years off my life, before grabbing one of our hands and rubbing them against his stubble. I grimaced and took a step back, finally finding the line of how much of Gobber's weirdness I'd put up with.

"Feel that?"

"Yes," Hiccup answered awkwardly as he pulled his hand away.

"It's usually supple, tender, like a newborn baby." The two of us shot each other a glance, growing more uncomfortable by the minute. "When it's fire weather? Dry as a fifty-year-old yak."

"Which brings us to you," Chief Stoick interjected.

"I-It does?"

"Yes. One errant dragon blast could burn Berk to the ground." That was something both of us understood prior to the chief saying it, but something about the words actually leaving his mouth made it that much more urgent. "So make sure the twins don't do anything stupid out there." We shrugged our shoulders at each other as Chief Stoick and Gobber went back to business.

"So I'm guessing now we have to track the twins down and bring them back here?" I sighed.

"We'll just have to be careful and quick. Let's gather up some supplies and get ready to go as soon as possible." I nodded and raced back toward my hut, gathering up supplies before striding my way toward where Hiccup lived. Shriek waddled along close to my feet, completely unaware of the consequences of not reaching the twins in time. They were a destructive force of nature that were going to burn down the entirety of Berk if we didn't get to them now. Hiccup and I started getting ourselves together when Astrid and Stormfly landed nearby.

"Uh, where are you two going?" she asked, not leaving her dragon.

"The twins haven't come back yet," I explained, "and no one's seen them."

"I knew I shouldn't have sent them out there," Hiccup muttered, slinging his leg up over Toothless. I made my way up onto my own dragon and started to follow behind him.

"We're going with you," Astrid insisted, referencing her and Stormfly.

"No, they're our responsibility. We'll find them." Hiccup and I took off, refusing to say anything as we scanned the ground, hoping to find some sign of a Zippleback or the twins. Thankfully, I didn't see any clear, glaring signs of destruction, which hopefully meant they hadn't been afforded the opportunity for chaos, somehow.

"Keep your eyes open, Toothless."

I only tore my gaze from the ground for a moment, but it was long enough to register the fact a large plume of smoke had begun to rise through the trees. Smoke suddenly began to overtake the oxygen and cause me to cough.

"Like I said: fire weather. Just great. You know what they say? Where there's fire, there's the twins." I shot a look at him.

"Who says that?"

The two of us flew straight into the dark cloud, swooping down a little lower in hopes of being able to spot the twins. The stinging in my eyes caused them to water and I sputtered and coughed, trying to get enough air to keep myself conscious. I could practically feel the dark substance soaking into my pores.

"Toothless, there." I couldn't understand how Hiccup could see through the flames quickly skittering their way up the trunks of the trees and dancing through the violent wind. "Come in low, bud, to avoid the fire and the..." We got close enough to see through the smoke. A massive dragon loomed over Tuffnut, who sat dangling from the net with a dragon trap perched in the branches. "...massive Typhoomerang?"

A tree nearly crashed down onto Hiccup and Toothless, forcing Shriek and I to pull back for a second before swooping over the site of the crash. Panic started to strike as I watched the orange flames consume Toothless' tail fin.

"The clearing, Toothless!" Hiccup cried as he frantically attempted to shift his peg leg. "We can make the clearing!"

Hiccup and Toothless crash landed onto the ground, and the force caused Hiccup to be thrown from the saddle. He tumbled uncontrollably a few times, landing face first on the dirt.

"Hiccup!" I pushed Shriek forward to land and immediately jumped off of her, racing for Hiccup's body and wrapping an arm around his waist to help him up. He shook his head a little, and I moved to rest my other hand on the center of his chest. One of his arms wrapped around my shoulders, while the other hand wrapped itself around the wrist of my hand that rested on him as we stared down the massive dragon. It leered at us, and I suddenly felt a drop in my stomach right before it roared. It extended its wings out, not that it needed to make itself look any more massive, and began to stomp toward us.

"Okay, everybody stand back. This is bad." The two of us jumped, and I felt his grip on my wrist tighten as it roared right in our faces. "Wait a second... I know you." I glanced over at Hiccup.

"Well, he doesn't seem to know you!" The two of us backed up against the side of Toothless, who wrapped his wings around Hiccup and I to shield us as the Typhoomerang did the same in an attempt to trap us for an attack. It leaned its head down and attempted to snap at us.

"Oh, man! Your new dragon ate Hiccup and Reign!" Ruffnut shouted.

"Bad Typhoomerang. Now, you barf out Hiccup and Reign right now."

Realizing it couldn't reach us through Toothless, the Typhoomerang spread its wings and allowed Toothless to do the same. Hiccup immediately raced out as the cocoon opened. He put himself right out into the open, staring up at the Typhoomerang as it growled at her.

"Hiccup! What are you doing?" I hissed. He extended his hand up and stared at it with wonder. I reached over for my sword, but before I could do something, the Typhoomerang leaned its head down and nuzzled Hiccup's hand. My mouth slightly fell open as I slowly got up and made my way over to him.

"This-This isn't just any Typhoomerang." Hiccup turned around. "Ruff, Tuff, Reign, don't you recognize this guy? Look at him!" I followed Hiccup's steps and stared at the face of the large dragon, attempting to figure out what exactly he was seeing, and how it was relevant when a forest fire was barreling toward us. "It's Torch!"

I had to think for a second before remembering the little Typhoomerang Hiccup and I had found a while back. My eyes widened in amazement as I moved my eyes up. He'd gotten big fast.

"What? No way."

"Hiccup, Torch is, like, this big." Tuffnut held his hands close together, then scoffed. "And he calls himself the Dragon Conqueror."

"Uh... no, I don't call myself that. And this is Torch, he just grew... a lot. That's what happens when you, well, grow up." Tuffnut shrugged his shoulders.

"Uh... nope. I'm drawing a blank here. I don't know anything about that."

"Yeah. Nothing." I bit down on my tongue, trying to hold back my similar thoughts. Toothless lowered himself to the ground and growled just as Torch flicked his tail out to knock him down. I'd nearly forgotten the two of them didn't get along the last time they'd seen them.

"Come on, guys. You're not gonna start this again," Hiccup sighed, stepping between them. "Right now, we've got a fire bearing down on us. Ruffnut, get Tuffnut out of that trap." He started to race back over to Toothless.

"Uh, yeah, about that. We've been trying--"

"--but someone, and I won't say any names, didn't give very clear instructions." Hiccup let out an exasperated sigh, his shoulders slumping.

"Never mind." Hiccup rushed over to Barf and Belch and cut the ropes tying them to the ground. "Barf, Belch, help me up." One of the dragons-- I never knew which head was which-- leaned down to allow Hiccup to climb on top of him to boost him up. Hiccup jumped up onto the net and tried to undo the latch.

"Just... just leave me," Tuffnut coughed out. My eyes began to sting and water again as the smoke seeped its way closer to us. "Save yourselves!"

"You heard him, let's get out of here!"

"Again, kidding." Ruffnut stopped in her tracks.

"Yeah, me too." Hiccup yanked the latch up and down, attempting to get it to release as the flames completely encircled us.

"It's stuck tight!" Realizing he couldn't get it to budge, Hiccup jumped down from the trap. "We need to get out of here. That fire's heading straight to Berk. Torch, can you give us a lift?" He seemed to understand what Hiccup was asking, and leaned down to allow us to climb up onto his back. Hiccup, Toothless, Barf, Belch, Shriek, and myself all fit on him, and as he took off, he grabbed Tuffnut and the trap from the branches.

"This is awesome and scary!" Tuffnut screamed as he dangled just above the flames.

"The fire's headed for that logging path. If it jumps over, it'll burn through Berk before we can do anything. Okay, Torch. Set us down on that path." Torch roared back at us and began to descend.

"Uh, hey, guys?" Tuffnut called up. "As awesome as this fire is up close, I think my back hair just went up in flames. And you know how much I love my back hair. And how much of it there is."

"It's true!" Ruff confirmed. "He does. Almost as much as I like mine." I shuddered in disgust.

"Just hang on! We're going in for a landing!"

"Wait a minute!" Torch dropped Tuff onto another branch before landing right on the edge of the fire. Those of us capable ran closer, attempting to figure out what to do to stop it. Yellow and orange roared and crawled closer as it shot up its plumes of black and grey.

"We're too late!" Hiccup's shoulders slumped as I placed a hand on his arm, watching the flames close in on us.

"Wait! Torch can help." Hiccup and I glanced at each other in disbelief. "Torch!" Tuff twirled his finger in a circle, and Torch began to twirl and flap his wings. I began to panic, remembering that's how a Typhoomerang summoned flames.

"Torch, no! Don't do that!" I turned around to glare at Tuffnut. "Tuff, we don't need any more fire, especially coming from a Typhoomerang." I sighed and tugged on my ponytail. "We need to get water."

"First of all, you don't fight fire with water."

"At least, we don't."

"We fight it with fire." I stared at them in disbelief, shaking my head at their lack of logic. Hiccup, on the other hand, seemed to understand exactly what they were talking about.

"If we clear these trees ahead of the fire, there won't be anything left that it can burn. Ruff, Tuff, that's brilliant." It shocked me how often Hiccup had said that recently.

"You need to stop saying that. They're gonna start believing they're really geniuses."

"Duh. Hello."

"We knew that. We knew we were brilliant." The trees began to collapse and crumble beneath themselves as Hiccup and I stepped forward, suddenly staring down the raging force of nature as though it were nothing.

"Okay, guys, here's the plan. When I give the signal, tell Barf and Belch to start blasting. Toothless and me are gonna do the same. Reign, you try to get Shriek to knock some of the trees backwards. Don't let them fall toward us." I nodded.

"Fight fire with fire! We should make that our catchphrase."

"Yeah! That, or: a yak's gotta do what a yak's gotta do." I squinted my eyes as I shook my head at him. "What? It's catchy! Oh, don't tell me you won't be using that."

"Oh... kay. Ready, now!" Hiccup shot his hand forward, signaling to the dragons to start shooting at the trees. Shriek and I distanced ourselves from the rest of the group, then I covered my ears as she began to roar, sending the ashy remains of trees back into the forest. "We've gotta keep it moving that way!" Hiccup cried as I uncovered my ears again. "Toothless, wind!" Toothless hovered in the air and flapped his wings in the direction of the fire.

"Barf, Belch, wings!" I smirked down at my dragon and signaled for her to begin flapping her massive wingspan at the fire, keeping it from crawling closer. "Torch, do your thing!" Torch hovered above all the other dragons, and the force from his wings creating a wing gust strong enough to really start pushing the fire back.

"Torch, now!"

Torch dove straight for the fire and began to fly in circles, causing the large flames to form a vortex around him, before it dispelled into the air, leaving the dark shadows of the burnt trees.

"Nice going, Torch!" Hiccup smiled as Torch landed behind him and I came over to stand behind him. "You too."

"And still no love for the trapped Viking." Torch made his way over to Tuff and nuzzled him affectionately as he continued to dangle from the tree. "Finally!" I chuckled and turned to look at the large Typhoomerang.

"We should head back, now that we've taken care of the fire." We all got back up onto Torch, who picked up Tuffnut as we made our way back to the village. Torch dropped Tuffnut to dangle from the twins' home before landing. Astrid, Snotlout, and Fishlegs ran over, watching in amazement as we descended down on this massive, typically aggressive, dragon.

"A Typhoomerang!" Fishlegs marveled. "Amazing!" We all slid down one of Torch's massive wings and approached the rest of our group.

"Not just any Typhoomerang. Take a closer look." Hiccup gestured up toward the dragon and waited for Fishlegs to have his moment of recognition.

"Is that... Torch?"

"No way!"

"Please tell me he didn't bring the family."

"I found him in the woods. And I trained him." Tuffnut crossed his arms smugly, seeming to forget he was still caught in a dragon trap he'd gotten himself caught in.

"He actually did. It was pretty awesome."

"No way! Tuffnut couldn't even get himself out of that trap." Snotlout had a valid argument.

"Oh yeah? Watch this. Torch, wings!" As Torch spread his wingspan, he smacked Snotlout, sending him flying back into a cart and wheeling him away. We all laughed as we watched him disappear, when a loud cry from the woods caused Torch to look back. He reached down to nuzzle Tuff again, and I understood that was another Typhoomerang calling him back home.

"Quit it! What's he doing?"

"He's saying goodbye, Tuff," Hiccup told him.

"Oh... I'm gonna miss you, Torch. You're the only one who ever listened to me." As Torch leaned back, Tuff let out as loud of a roar as he could, causing the dragon to do the same before taking off, twirling in a few circles before heading back toward the woods. "Okay. Can you guys let me out of this trap now, or..."

"Well, I suppose." Hiccup started to step forward, but before he could, Gobber reached out and pushed him back.

"No, no. Not so fast, Hiccup," Gobber scolded. "You got yourself into that, you need to get yourself out."

"Uh..."

We all laughed at him, and as the others walked away, Hiccup reached out and grabbed my hand, stopping me in my tracks and encouraging me to turn and face him.

"Now that we've dealt with this fire situation, you wanna take Toothless and Shriek to the cove?" he asked. The red from the setting sun couldn't hide his slight blush.

"Sure," I smiled, pulling him toward our dragons and jumping up. I kept my grip on his hand as we smiled at each other and took off.