"Trader Johann's here! Everybody, Trader Johann's here!"

I shook my head as Trader Johann lowered the gang plank and Fishlegs scurried up it. Everyone always got so excited about him, but, although I'd never voice it out loud, I didn't exactly trust him. There was just something off about that guy.

"Pffft. Johann, schmohann," Snotlout scoffed. "That guys never lets me touch any of his cool stuff."

"Well, that's because last time he was here, you broke half of it," Hiccup fired back.

"It's my word against his." Trader Johann stepped out and rested his leg on the side of the boat, looking down on all of us.

"Ah, Berk! The crown jewel of the entire archipelago."

"Over here, Trader Johann!" He turned to see Fishlegs, Astrid, Hiccup and I had already boarded. "Ooh, what did you bring today?"

"Ah. Many wondrous things, Mister Fishlegs; treasures from every coast and every shore. Like the Pearls of Dyngja—perfect for that special lady in your life."

"You know, those could be yours, Astrid." I looked over to see Snotlout leaning closer to Astrid, as though that would somehow make her fall for him. "Just say the word."

"Yuck." She crossed her arms and marched away from him.

"That's not the word, Astrid." Gobber slowly walked through the piles of trinkets and treasures, eyeballing each of them carefully.

"Mm, nope," he muttered, passing by another set of items. "Nope."

"Ahh, Mister Gobber. What can I interest you in?"

"Why don't you wow me, Johann? Knock me off my feet." I raised an eyebrow. Gobber was being awfully demanding. I'd never seen him like this before.

"Put me to the test, are you? Okay." Johann chuckled uncomfortably.

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

"Oh, nothing too exciting. Just an old pile of—" Gobber pulled back the cloth to reveal a large pile of metal.

"Scrap metal! It's perfect! I've run out of things to pound around here." The rest of us made our way closer to the pile, eyeballing it warily. Tuffnut suddenly gasped and brought his hands to his chest.

"Whoa. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"It's just scrap metal," I scoffed.

"No, I'm talking about this mace!" He rushed over and picked up the blunt object, 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 finally moved back into his normal voice. "Oh, Macey. You get me." Tuff somehow cradled the weapon against his cheek without hurting himself.

"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." Gobber picked up a broken sword and bit down on it harshly.

"I'll take it all," he declared.

"Excellent! Always a pleasure, Mister Gobber."

I nudged Hiccup as I watched Toothless warily crawl toward the pile, his nose twitching rapidly. He managed to get just close enough before growling and baring his teeth, backing up. Something crashed behind us, and we all whipped around to see Snotlout standing among piles of broken items.

"Wasn't me." He quickly scampered away, arms crossed behind his back.

"I really hate that kid."

"Hey, Hiccup. Do you think you could spare a hook, son?" I chuckled at Gobber as Hiccup shot me a look, before putting a smile on his face and turning around.

"Sure thing, Gobber." I turned to the rest of the group.

"Hey, guys?" Everyone nodded and hopped on their dragons.

"Let's do this, Macey!" Tuffnut cried, holding up his newfound weapon that I couldn't help but notice he'd just... taken. Snotlout tried to get Hookfang to grab onto one end of the pile, but Gobber marched over and pulled him off.

"Not so fast, you. I paid good money for this scrap, I'll not have you dropping it into the ocean." Astrid, the twins, and Fishlegs took the ropes and carried the scrap metal off toward Gobber's smithy. I got up onto Shriek and flew away, back toward the Hoffersons' hut. Despite having lived with them for a year at this point, it was still hard for me to consider myself one of them. Shriek moved into her place outside, then I marched into the house and plopped down on my bed before removing some drawing tools from a drawer next to me. I stared down at the piece of parchment for what felt like ages, trying to come up with something to draw. For once, my mind had gone completely blank on ideas. Sighing, I leaned my head back against the head board, as though my ceiling somehow held answers.

I was awoken the next morning by confused chatter outside my window. Grumbling, I sat up and reached out for my sword... only for my hands to wrap around air. My eyes widened as I snapped my head over, finding that the weapon I carried had somehow gone missing in the time I was asleep. But... how? Did Astrid take it this morning and not tell me? Did it fall somewhere underneath my bed and I didn't hear it? Did I sleepwalk and put it somewhere?

Shaking my head, I pushed myself up and checked around my bed completely, before heading downstairs and out the door, finding people gathered and looking around in confusion. As I got closer, I noticed something in common: all of us were missing our metal. I suddenly panicked, and my hand flew up to my chest. I let out a sigh of relief as my fingers touched the outline of the pendent on my necklace through the fabric of my tunic.

"I had those ladles when I went to sleep, and now they're gone," one woman complained to the man across from her. My eyes flickered over in their direction, and I spotted Hiccup standing behind them. Shaking my head, I made my way over to him.

"My grandmother's goblets: gone!"

"Uh... okay? What did we just walk into?" I chuckled as he started to walk toward the gang, all looking as confused as the rest of us.

"My favorite milk jugs: gone!"

"What-What is going on here?" Hiccup asked loudly, as though we wouldn't hear him if he didn't shout.

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

"And some of us are taking it way hard." Astrid gestured her arm toward the twins. Tuffnut's arms flailed about wildly as he sobbed dramatically, dropping onto the hard dirt.

"Oh, Macey!" he lamented. "Macey! I... oh golly, she's gone. No!" He collapsed down, heaving a moment before his face shifted, and he pointed accusingly up at his sister. "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." Thankfully, Chief Stoick came over to the rest of us who weren't in a state of mental disarray.

"We've got quite a situation on our hands; axes, shields, helmets, drinking goblets—all stolen."

"Axes, shields, helmets, drinking goblets... what do all those things have in common?" I opened my mouth to speak to Hiccup, but before I could, Snotlout interjected.

"Obviously, duh." He pounded his fist against his helmet. "They're all gone." I rolled my eyes at him, then turned back to Hiccup and Astrid.

"No, they're metal. Everything that went missing was metal," I sighed. "Whoever this thief is got my sword."

"Reign, everything we own is metal," Astrid reminded me. I shook my head, trying to ignore the fact I felt slightly embarrassed now.

"I-It's a theory. Work with me." Tuff still sobbed over by his dragons.

"Whatever's going on, I need to find who's responsible before this panic gets any worse," the chief sighed.

"Stoick!" Gobber ran up to him, slightly out of breath. "Bucket and Mulch are slapping each other with sturgeons!" We followed Gobber's eye line, staring as the pair beat each other with the large fish. However, rather than being dumbfounded or appalled, we just shrugged.

"What happened to their bludgeons?" Chief Stoick asked, continuing to stare at them.

"Stolen. Hence the sturgeon."

"In some ways, I guess that's probably better."

"Uh, Dad? What'ddya say you deal with the sturgeon slapping while Reign and I do a little investigating?" He nodded and headed toward the pair, while I stepped closer to Hiccup.

"Investigating? What exactly are you planning, Hiccup?

"To return to the scenes of the crimes and see if we can find out something about this metal thief."

We both turned to look at Tuff as he headed back toward his and Ruff's home while he continued to lament his stolen mace. After exchanging unamused expressions, we turned and headed toward Gobber's smithy. The place had been completely cleared out, devoid of anything Gobber had spent careful hours crafting.

"Gobber, can you remember who's been here the last couple of days?" Hiccup asked, turning toward the stocky Viking.

"Hmm... hard to say. Business has been booming. There's only thirty-one days left until Snoggletog, you know? Don't wait until the last minute!" I rolled my eyes and shook my head at Gobber's attempt at advertising. Hiccup scanned his eyes over the ground, trying to find any sign of a person who could have gotten in here and stolen some of Gobber's items.

"No footprints," he sighed.

"This metal thief won't get the best of me. I've set a booby trap that's guaranteed to nab him." Gobber walked without looking where he was going, and he suddenly stopped in his tracks as something clinked below him.

"What's the matter?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and trying to see around Gobber.

"It would appear that I have trapped myself in my own booby." Hiccup and I came around either side of him and jumped, staring at the crossbows aimed straight at him. "Nobody... move... a... muscle..."

"Should we help him?" I whispered.

"No, no. I can get myself out of this." Hiccup and I stared at each other a moment, before he, Toothless, and I backed out slowly, all the while keeping an eye on him. Once out of the way, we ran towards the twins' hut, hoping they'd be able to give us more answers than Gobber. They had a knack for noticing the out of the ordinary, after all. We entered their hut and greeted the pair, only for Tuff to immediately begin lamenting over his stolen weapon.

"This is where Macey was before her... disappearance." He turned around to glare at his sister maliciously. Hiccup and I approached the place Tuffnut had pointed at, finding it to be some sort of shrine to the weapon, complete with flowers decorating the wood. "Quote-unquote."

"I didn't steal your stupid mace," Ruff shot back quickly.

"This was her favorite spot. She... just loved watching the sunsets. Or this wall, just depending on which side I put her on." Quietly, I stepped closer to Hiccup and leaned in next to him.

"This is weird."

"Yeah. Even for the twins."

"Hey!" Ruff protested. "Leave me out of this." Hiccup went over to examine the door, while I crouched down and examined the floorboards a little closer, trying to make sure there were no signs of anyone who could have broken in.

"Strange. No sign of forced entry, not a single footprint."

"And no eyewitnesses."

"I just don't get it." Hiccup shook his head at the perplexing situation.

"I do." Both of us turned around to stare at Ruff, raising our eyebrows. "It's so obvious. And you call yourselves detectives," she scoffed.

"First of all: no, we don't call ourselves detectives. Uh, and second: what's so obvious?" She beckoned us closer, as though what she was going to tell us was some big secret.

"What you're looking for is not just a metal thief, it's a ghost metal thief." Ruff crossed her arms and looked at us with determination, clearly proud of the conclusion she'd reached. "Uh-huh."

I blinked at the twins for a moment longer, then Hiccup and I turned on our heels, and without a word, headed out of the hut. We were no closer to answers than we had been this morning, and I started to get the feeling we were looking for all the wrong clues.

"Well, that was... helpful, as usual," Hiccup deadpanned. The sun had begun to set, casting an orange glow over the village. Somehow, it felt ominous, but that was probably more because of the situation than anything else.

"It's getting late." Hiccup and I hopped on our dragons. "We'll start again in the morning."

I turned Shriek around and directed her toward home, still lost in thought about who the thief could have been... and why they'd only steal metal objects. It plagued me all through dinner, but Astrid knew better than to ask why my gaze lingered so distantly. I tossed and turned that night in bed, mulling all of the possibilities over in my head, until I became so worn out I forced myself asleep.

We all followed the same routine the next morning: people came out and lamented about the things that had been stolen, this time shouting. I still couldn't figure out who the metal thief could be last night, leaving me feeling defeated as I greeted the other solemn faces. I found the rest of our group, minus Hiccup, and approached them. They'd all been stripped of their metal decorations, and I had to admit, it was kind of odd seeing the boys and Ruffnut without their helmets.

"The thief hit you guys, too, huh?" I'd never heard Fishlegs sound so down in spirits.

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

"Me too." We glanced at the twins as they approached. "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 removed a scroll from his pocket and unrolled it, revealing a drawing in a perfect mirror image of the person holding it.

"Uh... Tuffnut? That's you," I pointed out.

"No, it's not."

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

"No, it isn't. I think I would know myself if I—" Tuff glanced at the crude drawing again, and as the realization hit him, his facial expression hardened. "Huh. I guess it is. Yep." We turned our heads at the sound of wings flapping, watching as Hiccup and Toothless landed.

"Hey, guys. I know who the thief is. Or, should I say, I know who our thieves are." Hiccup said that as though it were some clue, or as though we could figure it out just from that, but our glances of confusion and blank expressions seemed to cue him in otherwise. "Adolescent Smokebreath dragons."

My eyes widened. The whole idea of a metal thief made much more sense now, but how the Smokebreaths got on Berk didn't. They weren't native to this island.

"Of course! Smokebreaths steal metal to build their nests."

"But why would Smokebreaths be on Berk." The chief read my mind, most likely because he just knew the island he had rule over and the creatures that lived on it.

"Chief, coming in for the big win! 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!" We all turned our heads as Gobber came sprinting toward us, surprisingly limber for having to run on one peg leg. "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!" A piece suddenly clicked into place in my mind.

"Chief Stoick! I think I might know how the Smokebreaths got here." I turned to the others. "Does anyone know where Trader Johann is?"

"I thought I saw him go into the Great Hall." Tuff pointed up toward the building. I nodded my head toward it, and Hiccup, Toothless, and Chief Stoick followed behind me. Trader Johann sat at a table along with two other Vikings, telling some story that he thought was funny, but the other two only seemed disturbed by. He turned his head and upon noticing us approaching him, spread his arms wide.

"Ah, Master Hiccup, Miss Reign, and the Great Chief. To what do I owe this pleasure." I crossed my arms and jutted a hip out, staring Trader Johann down with steely eyes. I opened my mouth to grill Johann, but Hiccup must have picked up on my intentions, because he interjected before I could speak.

"Well, Johann, uh... we were wondering where you may have gotten that scrap metal you sold Gobber." I reached out and poked Hiccup's arm, but he just responded by shrugging and looking back at Johann.

"Unfortunately, old friends, I cannot possibly reveal my sources." The chief glowered and stepped closer to Trader Johann, towering over him. "Over course, there are times when it's best to share. I procured it from a Berserker who was offering it at a price I could not refuse. He had just come from an island we all deeply fear."

"Breakneck Bog," I hissed. How could Johann think to trust a Berserker to buy anything. My gut instinct about this guy only grew stronger.

"You didn't hear that from me."

"Oh, well that wasn't just a pile of scrap metal, Johann. That was a Smokebreath nest with hatchlings inside it!"

"Well, that's unfortunate news." Frustrated, the three of us turned away and prepared to attempt and formulate a plan. Toothless quickly got in Johann's face and growled at him before scampering after us. "No need to thank me!"

"Well, that answers how the Smokebreaths got here." On our way back to the gang, I watched as people attempted to carry on daily tasks without metal. A merchant attempted to move his product in a wooden wheelbarrow, only for it to fall apart and spill the produce everywhere. Buckets and benches fell apart without their reinforcements.

"Gobber, what's the latest?" Chief Stoick asked as the Viking caught up to us.

"It's just as I had feared, Stoick. There's no metal left in all of Berk."

"What of the armory?"

"Eh... let's just say the axe handles outnumber the axes. Oh, and then there's this." Gobber knocked on one of the catapults, only for it to fall apart. We were left without weapons, and the only way we could defend ourselves was the dragons.

"Without weapons, Berk is vulnerable."

"We've still got the dragons," Hiccup pointed out.

"And Dagur has an armada. Six dragons are no match for a large-scale attack."

Hiccup and I shared one glance, and knew what we had to do. Quickly, we rallied the disheartened troops in the Academy. They all stared at Hiccup and I as we paced back and forth in opposite directions, brushing each other's shoulders a few times.

"We have to find that missing metal. Especially the weapons."

"Macey must be so alone and scared out there." I shook my head at Tuff. "It's hard out there for a mace." He began to cry again.

"Maybe the Smokebreaths took the metal back to Breakneck Bog," Astrid suggested, bringing us all back to reality.

"I don't think so." We looked over at Fishlegs to see him leaned over the Book of Dragons, studying it as though it were the key to saving his life. "Smokebreaths can't fly long distances carrying a lot of weight."

"Hey, Snotlout, how'd you get your helmet back." He cackled and pushed the metal item up out of his eyes.

"It's my spare. A real warrior is never without his helmet." Astrid scoffed.

"Can't say the same for his brain," she muttered.

"What is it with you today? You are so much—" Before Snotlout could finish, Stormfly shot out a spine at him and struck the spare helmet, causing him to cry out in fear. "Hey!"

"Snotlout, come on. Please focus."

"Come on. Really?" Stormfly fired another tail spine at his helmet.

"If the Smokebreaths didn't take the metal back to Breakneck Bog, they must have started building a nest somewhere on Berk," I concluded.

"Awesome!" Fishlegs looked up from the Book of Dragons, and we all stared at him, waiting for him to catch on to what the rest of us had already realized. "Not awesome?"

"Definitely not awesome. 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. With a... net! No, no no no, with a rope! Okay! Oh, oh, don't say it! With a ropey-net!"

"I-I was just gonna say with metal." Tuffnut cried out loudly, causing me to jump.

"It was on the tip of my tongue! Stupid tongue." He turned to his sister and stuck his tongue out. "Flick it. Come on, flick it." Sufficiently weirded out, I decided to turn toward Hiccup—and as a result, away from the twins—and get back to our plan.

"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 looked up at Snotlout with a satisfied smirk. It took him a moment to realize what was going on, but when he did, his expression soured and he glared down at Astrid.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. What about his leg? That's made of metal."

"Snotlout!" I snapped, defending Hiccup.

"All I'm saying is, fair is fair."

"Snotlout, please!"

We all went to gather up what little metal the island had left, throwing it into a pile at the Academy. The sun had set as we were putting the finished touched on it, and just before I went to hide behind a barrel, I felt something cool and slick thump against my chest. Hesitating, I reached down and pulled out my necklace, watching as the moonlight made it shimmer. Any bit of metal could help, but... this necklace had already been taken by the Smokebreaths once, I didn't want to risk it getting taken again.

"Reign?" I turned around to see Hiccup looking down at my hands. "You don't have to put that in. One piece of metal isn't going to make a difference." I let it fall back against my chest and smiled at him. "But, if you're going to keep it on, you might want to make sure it's out of sight so the Smokebreaths don't take it like last time." I blushed and nodded, pushing it back down my tunic before running to hide behind a barrel with him.

"I still think we should've flipped a yak pie for it," Snotlout grumbled, still bitter he had to sacrifice his helmet. In the distance, I noticed a cloud of grey smoke approaching.

"Shh. It looks like they're taking the bait." The smoke whizzed by, and of course, the first thing the dragons snatched was Snotlout's helmet. Hiccup and I ducked back behind the barrel and pointed at the others.

"Okay. Very important: no one do absolutely anything until I give the signa—"

"Get 'em!" The rest of us watched in shock and horror as the twins dove straight for the pile of metal, gas and sparks spilling from Barf and Belch's mouths, creating a large explosion.

"Yet another plan, perfectly executed," I deadpanned. "Dragons, everyone!" The smoke cleared to reveal the twins attacking each other, and I watched as the cloud of smoke took off. "Look, there they go! Follow them!"

We took off in pursuit of the Smokebreaths, rushing back to their nest in fear. They had to know we were following them, so there was the possibility they'd lead us somewhere else, away from where they resided. Were Smokebreaths even smart enough to do that?

The dragons ducked down below the cover of the trees, trying to lose us.

"Okay, gang. Split up!" Hiccup called out to us.

I followed him to the right of the group, trying to get Shriek fully up to speed. If I could fly faster than them, maybe I could momentarily stop them in their tracks. Toothless fired a plasma blast at the group, briefly illuminating just how many Smokebreaths there were in that cloud. I managed to get just close enough to have Shriek fire a small blast of sound, clearing the smoke but revealing the small dragons had scattered.

"Sneaky." I felt the rush of wind behind me as the Smokebreaths attempted to dash away, thinking they'd outwitted me. "Over there." Hiccup and I took off again, ducking underneath a branch to prevent being decapitated. Suddenly, the smoke began to envelop us, closing in and preventing us from seeing ahead.

"Oh, not this again," Hiccup huffed, mildly annoyed. Toothless began to roll in the air and fire random, haphazard plasma blasts. I ducked out of the way just before one struck my head, gasping.

"Hey, watch where you're firing, Hiccup!" I shouted over the noise.

"Sorry!"

Hiccup yanked his shield off his back and fired the bola in the middle. He managed to take one down before another Smokebreath got a little too close, and started to yank on the metal foundations of Toothless' tail fin. I dove after them as they started to plummet, but thankfully, before Hiccup and Toothless hit the ground, Hiccup shot out a rope and managed to catch on a tree branch. Once they hit the ground again, the Smokebreaths sped by, the rod from Toothless' tail dangling down.

"Follow that rod!"

The best they could do was run on the ground, so Shriek and I took to the sky again, trying to catch up with the head start the Smokebreaths had. I could feel the tendrils of smoke on my cheeks when I realized I needed a way to get the little dragons' attention. I could feel my necklace thumping against my chest. My heart dropped for a moment, but if it got Toothless' rod back...

"You want some metal? Here you go!"

Before I could throw my necklace in, Hiccup cried out to the Smokebreaths and released the rope from his shield. The Smokebreath grabbed onto it and yanked, struggling to get it free from Hiccup's shield. It pulled a little too hard, yanking him off Toothless' back and dragging him through the air. Toothless, Shriek, and I followed quickly behind, trying to catch him before the Smokebreaths got him too high off the ground.

"Maybe this was a bad idea!" Hiccup called out as he bounced on the ground.

"You don't say!" Toothless managed to grab onto Hiccup's real leg, yanking him back hard enough to pull both the rope and the rod from the Smokebreath's mouth. It growled at us, but flew away to join the rest of its pack. I reached down and picked up the rod, handing it to Hiccup as Toothless roared at... something up above us.

"What is it, bud?" Toothless refused to move his gaze. "Give us some light, bud." Toothless fired a single plasma blast into the air, revealing a large ring of metal in the tree tops.

"The Smokebreaths' nest." I stared at it for another moment before jumping on Shriek. "Okay, we need to go back and get all the riders so we can break this apart and get it back to the village." Just before we took off, Astrid and Stormfly swept down and landed.

"Thank Thor! I finally caught up to you," she sighed, looking at the two of us with a mix of concern and relief.

"Astrid! We found the Smokebreath nest, and—"

"We don't have time for that now." A new look crossed her face, one that made my stomach drop.

"What do you mean?"

"We just spotted something on the horizon. Something that may be a bigger problem than the Smokebreaths."

She didn't have to say it, I immediately understood. For a moment, I felt horrified, then my fists clenched in anger and I felt a rush of adrenaline come on.

"Let me deal with my brother," I growled.

"Reign!" Hiccup stopped me before I recklessly took off, grabbing my arm. "You don't have your sword."

"You don't think I can beat him hand-to-hand?"

"I think you could beat Dagur hand-to-hand. But you can't beat his entire armada. None of us can, we don't have any weapons." I sighed and slumped down slightly on Shriek.

"You're right." Astrid led the two of us to a cliff side, where we could just see the ships over the horizon. Hiccup pulled out his spyglass to get a better look, staring for a long time before bringing his arm back down.

"What is this guy, the king of armadas? Does he go anywhere without one?"

"It's like he knew we'd be defenseless." Something suddenly dawned on me.

"He did." Without another word, I rushed off to find the chief and the others, relaying what I'd just put together in my mind. "Chief Stoick! I think Dagur might have set this whole thing up, with the Smokebreaths and everything."

"And what makes you say that, Reign?"

"Trader Johann said he bought the scrap metal from a Berserker." As the others started to catch on, they chimed in.

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

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

"Hiccup, Reign, you found the Smokebreath nest. You and the other riders go to it and get our weapons," Chief Stoick ordered.

"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!" I shook my head at Snotlout's suggestion. Under any other circumstance, that wouldn't be the worst idea. But we didn't have the resources for it now.

"Even with our dragons, the seven of us won't be able to take out those ships alone."

"Well, if we cut ourselves in half, we'd be..." Tuff tried to do the math in his head, but doing that sort of calculation clearly proved to be too difficult for him. "...twice as many!"

"Just once, try stopping it between here, and here." Astrid pointed to her head and mouth respectively.

"No, he's... actually on to something." I stared at Hiccup in disbelief.

"See? I'll get an axe."

"What? No! We don't need an axe—we don't need more of us. We need more dragons." I placed a hand on his shoulder and moved around to face him, one eyebrow raised as it started to dawn on me what he might be suggesting.

"What are you saying, Hiccup?"

"Why fight against the Smokebreaths, when we can fight with them. Everyone, bring any metal you might still have in your houses. It doesn't matter how small it is." With that, Hiccup dashed off toward his hut. I stood there and stared for a moment, before shaking my head and choosing to roll with this.

"You heard Hiccup!" The seven of us hopped up on our dragons, readying ourselves to carry off the metal. Gobber approached Hiccup and Toothless, unscrewing the hook he currently had on.

"I bludgeoned my first Outcast with this." He placed it in Hiccup's hands. "Take good care of it."

"Thank you, Gobber. I will." The two of us took off toward the Smokebreath nest, flying a little faster than normal as we were pushed by our sense of urgency.

"So, when were you going to mention to Gobber we're sending all this metal to the Smokebreaths?" I teased, leaning a little closer as he turned red.

"Uh... we'll get to that... eventually."

"Mm-hmm." The rest of the gang caught up, carrying nets filled with metal, and Hiccup and I led them toward the site of the Smokebreath nest. Instead of stopping, we just flew quickly over them, making the metal clang in the nets and drawing the attentions of the Smokebreaths. I heard them screech, and when I looked back, I saw the cloud of smoke following us.

"Okay, there they are. Pick up the pace! If they get this metal, we're done."

Quickly, we all looped back around and headed toward the water, leading the Smokebreaths along with us. The Berserkers, for whatever reason, had yet to attack Berk. Maybe my brother was waiting for some sort of surrender. If that was the case, he was about to be disappointed. We passed the docks and flew right toward my brother's armada, deadest on getting rid of them before they decided to do something.

"Dagur's fleet, up ahead." Once the smoke covered the ships completely, Hiccup gave the signal. "Okay, gang! Metal, away!"

We released our dragons' grips on the nets, dropping the metal down onto the ships. The Smokebreaths squealed in delight, then dove down to collect their materials. I heard Dagur call out from below as the smoke began to clear, revealing most of the metal had been stripped. The only problem? The ships were still afloat.

"Hiccup, I thought the Smokebreaths were supposed to—"

"Wait for it."

The masts of the ships suddenly unraveled, causing the people below to be sent running across the deck. With most of the weight of the ship now on the deck, then began to sink down into the salty sea, boards completely coming apart without their nails. With the task accomplished, we headed back to Berk's shore and began to dismantle the Smokebreath's nest. Everyone would soon get their metal back, Tuffnut was reunited with that stupid mace, and Berk could once again defend itself. We landed before Chief Stoick, who approached us with a smile and a chuckle.

"Well done, son!"

"We'll return everyone's metal once we get the Smokebreaths back to Breakneck Bog."

"And how do you plan on doing that." I smirked.

"I think I know someone who would be happy to help us." Hiccup turned to me and poked my arm.

"For the record, if he asks, this was all your idea." I winked at him, then headed back toward the slowly dismantling nest to gather up some metal to hand off to our special helper. Once it was all loaded up onto the net, I closed it and took off toward the familiar ship, setting it down on the deck. A cloud of smoke followed me, descending down upon Johann.

"But, Miss Reign, this can't be the only solution!" he called up.

"Think of the story you'll have to tell!" I shouted after him. "Next stop: Breakneck Bog."

I watched to make sure the ship disappeared over the horizon, then turned and headed back toward Berk.