Ties that Bind us

by Sam_Stew

Summary:

Leyla and Dak were sure that their parents were dead, but their parents Dagur and Mala were sure their children were kidnapped by dragon hunters. 9 years before after the children were kidnaped the ship went down in a storm

On hiatus

Chapter 1: Beginning

Summary:

Rewrite, so hopefully it sounds better now

9 years before,

It had been years since the king of dragons fiasco, and Hiccup and Astrid were visiting Defenders of the wing island they couldn’t visit as much since Berk moved islands. Hiccup and Astrid landed on the island, and each got off their dragons, and they started looking around for the leaders of the island. They didn’t find Mala nor Dagur but they did find their kids. 

Dagur and Mala had two twin kids who were 3 years old, Leyla and Dak were running around oblivious to the two riders that had arrived. The two riders started walking around, which made the twins finally notice their existence. Dak ran over to Hiccup and forced Hiccup to pick him up, Leyla ran over to Toothless and started petting his head. “Okay I see how it is.” Hiccup laughs, looking at his niece giving his dragon attention. Leyla looks at her uncle before running over to aunt instead, 

“Aunty Astrid.” Leyla babbles at her, running over towards her. 

“Hi Leyla.” Astrid smiles, picking up the younger girl, “Any idea where your parents are?” Astrids question was answered by the younger girl  shrugging her shoulders causing a laugh out of her aunt. 

“No idea?”  Hiccup laughs, cutting in the conversation of the two

“Brother!” Dagur’s shout interrupts the conversation between the two of them, Hiccup turned to the voice and saw his brother Dagur the Deranged and Mala. 

“Found them!” Leyla yells, towards her aunt causing another laugh from the women.  

“Hi, Dagur, Mala.” Hiccup greets. 

“Hello, Hiccup.” Mala says walking over to the man, “I see the twins found you both before we did.” 

“More like we found the twins.” Hiccup laughs. 

“Oh really?” Mala laughs. 

“Yeah, pretty much.” Hiccup responds, “So how’s life been, I know we haven’t been able to visit as much.” 

“It’s been great Hiccup.” Mala responds, “Other than two kids never listening.” Mala laughs tickling her son's sides from where he was sitting. 

“Mum!” Dak responds to his mother's actions, “Protect me!” Dak turned into Hiccup’s arms attempting to get away from his mother. Hiccup laughs at his nephew's actions and helps him hide from his mother. 

“Oh really?” Mala laughs at her nephew and her brother-in-law. 

Dagur and Astrid walk over to their lovers, joining the conversation. “Dad!” Dak yells towards Dagur, “Mum is trying to get me.” 

“How exactly?” Dagur asks, facing his son. 

“She keeps tickling me!” Dak yells. 

“Oh,” Dagur responds, walking towards his son. “Like this?” Dagur asks, tickling his son's sides like his wife was. 

“Dad!” Dak yells, attempting to push his father's hands away. 

“What?” Dagur responds, stops tickling his son's sides.

Dak turns towards his uncle, and has Hiccup put him down. When his feet were on the ground Dak runs towards Toothless using him as cover from the adults. Dak started playing with Toothless leaving the adults and his sister. “So how have you been brother?” Dagur asks. 

“I’ve been fine.” Hiccup responds, “How about you?” 

“I’ve been great,” Dagur responds, the man looks over to his daughter who was still being held by Astrid. Leyla’s arms were around Astrids neck, not allowing her aunt to put her down. “I see Leyla isn’t letting you go.” 

Astrid looks down at the girl hugging her, “Yeah, she isn’t going anywhere.” Astrid laughs. 

“Leyla, are you going to let your aunt go?” Hiccup asks. 

“No.” Leyla responds, “My Aunty.” 

“I’m feeling some serious favoritism.” Hiccup responds, causing Astrid to laugh at him. 

“Just take it Hiccup, I’m her favorite.” Astrid laughs. 

“Yep.” Leyla adds to the conversation.  

“Rude.” Hiccup mutters. 

“Are you jealous?” Dagur laughs. 

“A little.” Hiccup responds. 

“Too bad Hiccup.” Astrid laughs, holding Leyla who still had her arms around the older women's neck. 

“Is Stormy here?” Leyla asks, pulling her head away from Astrid. 

“Yeah, Stormflys over there.” Astrid responds, Leyla whips her head around to where Astrid was pointing and sees the deadly Nadder. Astrid put the younger girl down, who then ran over to the dragon. Attempting to climb onto the dragon. 

“You’d think they’d be scared of dragons.” Dagur starts, looking at his kids who were both with a dragon behind them “They're huge compared to them and yet they act fearless with them.” 

“It just shows how much they’re like their parents.” Astrid laughs. 

“Yeah, you should see them with the eruptodon and Throk,” Mala starts. “Throk talks about the eruptodon with them for hours.” 

“That’s so sweet.” Hiccup responds.

“Yeah, it is.” Dagur adds, smiling at his kids. 

“If you asked years ago, I’d never think I’d see Dagur the Deranged loving being a dad so much.” Hiccup says. 

“Yeah, I agree.” Astrid laughs,

“Well, we better get going,” Hiccup starts, “It’s going to be dark soon.” 

“It was good to see you brother.” Dagur says Astrid and Hiccup walk towards their dragons who were still being loved on by the two toddlers. 

Astrid looks up at the saddle of her dragon seeing her niece sitting in it, “How’d you get up there?” Astrid asks her. 

“I climbed.” Leyla laughs, jumping into the older women's arms. 

“I have no idea how you did that.” Astrid laughs, putting the younger girl down onto the ground. Leyla laughs at the older women's confusion, running over to her parents. Dak ran close behind his twins towards their parents, standing in front of his mother. 

“Mum.” Dak starts, “Don’t tickle me.” 

Mala laughs at her son, picking him up, “I won’t tickle you, now do you want to say goodbye to your aunt and uncle?” Dak nods and the two of them walk over to the others. “Bye, Hiccup Astrid, it was great seeing you again.” 

“It was great seeing you as well.” Astrid responds, climbing onto the back of her dragon. Leyla and Dagur walk over to say goodbye as well. 

“Bye brother, Astrid.” Dagur tells the two of them, while holding his daughter. 

“Bye, Aunty Astrid, Uncle Hiccup!” Leyla yells. 

The two dragon riders leave, and the family starts walking to their home. Leyla rested her head on her father's shoulder, while she was being carried. Dagur and Mala lay their children down to sleep, then walk to their own room. Mala was looking around their room, looking for something. “Hun, what are you looking for?” Dagur asks, seeing what his wife was doing. 

“I’m looking for my notebook, I can’t find it anywhere.” Mala responds. 

“You mean the one you write stuff about dragons in?” Dagur asks. 

“Yeah, I can’t find it.” Mala says. 

“I think I saw Leyla with it earlier.” Dagur responds, remember he saw his daughter holding a notebook

“She must have grabbed it when I was doing her hair this morning.” Mala responds, “I’ll grab it in the morning, it’s probably in their room.” 

“Yeah, it’ll be fine until morning.” Dagur responds, “Leyla, would never let anything happen to it.” 

“Yeah.” Mala responds climbing into bed beside her husband. The two of them fall asleep, until they are woken up unexpectedly by their children’s cries, “What was that?” Mala asks climbing out of their bed. 

“I have no idea,” Dagur responds, running to their children's room, “Leyla! Dak!” With no response, they started looking around their house. “Maybe one of them had a nightmare.” 

“They usually come and get us if they have nightmares.” Mala responds, looking in the other rooms. “Let’s split up and see if we can find them.” Dagur nods and the two of them split up and start looking around their home. “Dak! Leyla! Come on, this isn’t funny!” Mala yells for their children

“Hey if you guys come out now you won’t be in trouble!” Dagur yells, “Leyla! Dak!” the two of them meet up back in their children's room. “I can’t find them.” 

“I can’t either.” Mala responds, looking around their twins room. 

“Maybe they’re somewhere else on the island.” Dagur suggests, “We need to go check.” The redhead starts running out of the room, when he's stopped by his wife’s voice. 

“Dagur they’re scared of the dark, there's no way they went outside on their own.” Mala starts, “They’re gone, we’ll team up with the dragon riders in the morning and see if we can find them.” 

“Mala we can’t-.” Dagur starts. 

“We aren’t leaving them.” Mala cuts her husband off, “We won’t find them in the dark, though.” Dagur sinks onto one of the twins' beds, with his head in his hands. Mala sits down next to him resting her head on her husband's shoulder, “We’ll find them.” 

It was months later, neither of the twins and their kids were found. They searched everywhere but they couldn’t be found. Even with the help of the dragon riders there was no hope. 

---

Dak and Leyla got back to the roost with the other dragons following them, “That was exhausting.” Dak moans sitting down. “Why did Magnis have to make another robot dragon?” 

“Because Magnis is stupid!” Aggro yells. 

“Aggro be nice.” Leyla responds. 

“It’s Magnis!” Aggro yells, “He isn’t going to understand us anyways.” 

“She has a point!” Dak laughs. 

“Fine.” Leyla laughs, “I guess he won’t know then.” 

“Yes!” Cutter yells, “Which means we can bully him.” 

“Yes, Cutter.” Leyla laughs.

The dragons go down to the sleep cave while both of the kids walk up the stairs. Both of the twins start getting ready for bed, Leyla takes off her vest, gloves, scarf, and boots then walks over to her bed and hangs up the pendant she was wearing.

Her and Dak both had pendants from their old home, it was made of stone and had a crest carved into it. Neither of them knew where it was from but they both wore it often; Leyla looks around her room for her dragon diary and her bag, but it was nowhere to be seen. “I must have left it downstairs.” Leyla mutters to herself, “I’ll get it in the morning.” 

Dak was in his room, getting ready for bed as well taking off his armor and pendant as well. The boy just started taking off his shoes when he heard Duggard burst through the door. Both of the twins run into the hall

“Was that Duggard?” Dak asks, his twin. 

“I think so.” Leyla responds, they both run down the stairs and are met by Duggard panicked and holding a paper. “Duggard?” 

“What’s wrong?” Dak asks. 

“So I have some news for you guys.” Duggard starts, “Someone put a bounty out on you.” he says holding the paper towards them. Leyla grabs the paper from the man, holding it in front of her so she could read it. 

Dak and Leyla 

Wanted for 1,000 gold 

Bring them both too the northern islands for payment

“What the?” Leyla yells, causing the dragons to climb up and join them. 

“Who did it?” Dak asks the man. 

“We have no idea,” Duggard responds, “Elbone found it at the Southern Markets, asked around no one answered or knew anything.” 

“That's strange.” Leyla mutters, “If anything I would say Selvanna or the pirates but they wouldn’t have the money and even if they did, they would give it up.” 

“Maybe Waldondo.” Dak suggests. 

“What’s going on?” Summer asks. 

“We got a bounty put on us.” Dak answers. 

“On all of us?” Cutter asks. 

“Nope, just me and Dak.” Leyla responds. 

“What, rude!” Cutter roars, “We’re just as good as you as guys.” 

“That's all you care about?” Dak asks. 

“Yeah!” Aggro and Cutter yell at the kids. 

“Thor, have mercy.” Leyla mutters. 

“What are they saying?” Duggard asks.

“Cutter, mad he did get a bounty on him.” Dak responds. 

“That’s all?” Duggard asks. 

“Yep.” Dak mutters 

“Okay, well I’m going to leave this here.” Duggard says, “Be safe you guys.” 

“Bye Duggard.” Both of the twins respond. 

“So how about we all camp down here, then we know nothing will happen.” Dak suggests. 

“Let’s do it.” Leyla responds, the twins go to their rooms and grab blankets and pillows. Both of the twins and the dragon lie on the floor and fall asleep.

Around midnight Dak wakes up and looks around the room, noticing his sister was also awake. Dak steps over the dragons and sits next to his twin. 

“So how you are feeling?” Dak asks her. 

“A little confused.” Leyla responds. 

“You're confused?” Dak asks. 

“Yeah,” Leyla responds, “This doesn’t make any sense, why would someone put a bounty on us?” 

“I don’t know Ley." Dak responds, “I really want to know who did though.” 

“Why?” Leyla asks, resting her head on her twins shoulder. 

“Because I want to know who thinks we cost 1,000 gold.” Dak laughs, trying to brighten the mood. 

“Really?” Leyla laughs. 

“Yes.” Dak responds. 

“Sometimes I wonder if we’re really related.” Leyla mutters. 

“Rude.” Dak laughs. 

“Shut up dork.” Leyla laughs, “Go to sleep.”

Chapter 2: Dragon riders in Huttsgalor

Summary:

The dragon riders in hutsgalor

Notes:

The middle name credit goes to JcArtist they gave me both of them

The twins and the dragon were sitting on the floor of the roost talking, “I know who did the bounty.” Dak starts

“Who?” Leyla asks. 

“Magnis.” Dak starts, “because we keep breaking his stuff.”

“First, where would he get 1,000 gold?” Leyla asks. 

“Second, he would never pay that much for you two.” Summer adds. 

“Okay rude.” Dak responds, “And don’t question my logic.” 

“Really Dak?” Leyla laughs. 

“Yes, Ley.” Dak responds, “Don’t be a meany either!”

“Did you really call her a meany?” Cutter asks. 

“Yes,” Dak responds, “Just because she has a big brain doesn’t mean she can bully me with it!” 

“Yes it does!” Aggro tells the boy. 

“No one asked you.” Dak mutters. 

“Dak you need to be nice.” Leyla responds. 

“Why?” Dak asks. 

“Because if you don't start being nice i’m going to tackle you.” Leyla laughs. 

“No you won’t.” Dak responds, Dak turns away from his twin towards his dragon and unexpectedly tackled by his twin. “Ley!” he yells pushing his twin off of him. “I didn’t think you’d actually do it.” 

Leyla sits back down on the ground laughing at her twin who was distraught, “I told you.” Leyla laughs. 

“This is why you're a meany.” Dak laughs back. 

“Real mature.” Leyla laughs. 

“I try.” Dak laughs, standing up off the blanket covered ground then he helps his twin up. “What are we going to do today?” 

“We could check on Elbone.” Dak suggests. 

“Yeah let’s go.” Leyla responds, before the twins leave the twins go dressed in their riding clothes putting on their matching pendants as well 

“Knowing him he’s probably in trouble.” Aggro adds. 

“Let’s go.” Winger tells the group, all of the Rescue Riders run out of the Roost towards the harbor. Leyla and Dak both climb on their dragon riding over the town. 

They land near the harbor and are greeted by the man, “Hi Rescue Riders!” 

“Hi Elbone!” Dak yells. 

“What are you all up too?” Elbone asks, from the top of the ship. 

“Nothing really.” Dak responds. 

“What are you doing today?” Leyla asks the man. 

“Gardening!” Elbone yells at them. 

“Did he try that already?” Dak asks his twin

“Yeah.” Leyla responds. 

“I knew it.” Dak mutters to himself. 

“Really?” Leyla asks her twin, “Anyways, Elbone are you going to need help today?” 

“Definitely not.” Elbone responds. 

“Okay,” Dak responds, “We should see what Han-.” 

“Rescue Riders!” Elbone yells, the group turns around and sees Elbone hanging from his ship. 

“Seriously.” Leyla mutters to herself, “Cutter do you mind?”Cutter nods and creates and step later out of his spines so Elbone could get down easily. 

“Thanks, Rescue Riders!” Elbone yells at the group. 

“Hey Ley.” Dak starts. 

“What Dak?” Leyla asks. 

“Race you back to the roost!” Dak yells jumping onto the swiftwing, the two of them flying away. 

“You Little!” Leyla yells, running towards Summer jumping on her as well. The two girls fly behind the two boys that rushed ahead. 

“I hate when they do that.” Burple mutters. 

“You and me both.” Aggro responds. 

“I’ll just beat you both.” Cutter yells, flying in front of them. 

“Cutter!” Aggro yells after the hybrid dragon while chasing him. 

Leaving Burple alone in the town square, “I hate when they all do it.” Burple mutters flying after them. 

Dak flips off his dragon, turning around to face his twin who was right behind him. “I win!” The red-haired boy yells towards his twin. 

Summer gilded against the ground Leyla jumping off her dragon as well, “You little cheater!” Leyla yells at him. 

“We both know I would have won either way!” Dak laughs. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Leyla mutters. 

“You love me.” Dak yells at his sister. 

“I guess.” Leyla responds. 

“You guess!” Dak yells, causing the other dragons around them to start laughing. They all walked inside the roost. The main level floor still had blankets scattered over it, “I’m sleeping in my bed tonight.” 

“Yeah, me too.” Leyla responds, walking over to grab her blankets off the floor. “Night guys.” Both of the twins tell the dragon while walking up the stairs to their separate rooms and getting ready for bed. The twins, both took off their armor and got in bed leaving their matching pendants on around their necks and the dragons went down into the sleep cave also going to sleep. 

With all of the Rescue Riders being exhausted from the day none of them heard the two people sneaking into the roost. The two of them split up, one of them going down into the sleep cave throwing powdered dragon root at them. After they knew the dragons were out and not going to wake up they both went up to where the kids were, both of the bounty hunters grabbed one of the twins. Neither of the twins woke up as they were brought down past the sleeping dragons and out the door of the roost. The twins were put in the lower part of the ship and said ship sailed away from the island. 

---

Mala and Dagur dealt with the loss of their kids separately, Dagur was angry getting revenge on the people who took the twins away, Mala on the other hand accepted it easier, she wasn’t mad at the people who took her kids like her husband but instead mad at herself for not being able to protect her children. Mala and Dagur worked together to get past the loss of their children. It took awhile but they did it. 

It had been nine years since the Defenders of the Wing royal twins were kidnapped, Mala believed that their kids were gone most likely dead, Dagur on the other hand was still trying to find them. The dragon riders were visiting Defenders of the Wing. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were talking to Throk about the eruptodon, while Astrid, Heather, and Mala are having a conversation and Dagur, Fishlegs, Hiccup, and Snotlout are having their own. 

Throk and the twins were talking with the eruptodon when they were interrupted by one of the traders of the island whose name was Anders, “Throk.” Anders yells. 

“Yes?” Throk says, turning to face the trader. 

“You're going to want to see this.’” Anders says handing the paper he found to the man. 

Throk takes the paper and starts looking over it. “Where did you find this?” Throk asks Anders. 

“We found it at the Northern Markets, someone was handing them out.” Anders responds. 

“What is it?” Tuffnut asks. Throk hands the paper to the male twin, who reads it as well. “What!” Tuffnut hands the paper to his twin, who also reads it over. 

“There's no way.” Ruffnut mutters. 

“We need to show Mala and Dagur.” Throk tells the twins, before turning to the trader. “Thank you, Anders.” The trader walks away from the three of them and they run to where the others were.

They all burst into the room filled with the others, “Mala, Dagur, you need to see this.” Throk tells them. Dagur stands up from the conversation he was having and walks over to the man grabbing the paper from him, Scanning his eyes over it. 

“This isn’t the first time this has happened.” Dagur responds, there have been many people saying they had found the twins over the years mainly for money thinking they’d get paid, passing the paper to the person beside him, who was his brother. 

“I am well aware but these kids shouldn’t be dragged into this.” Throk tells him. 

“Okay then we’ll find these kids.” Hiccup says

“We?” Dagur asks, “Hiccup we can’t make you come on this wild goose chase, we can get these kids and their family and move them or something.” 

“Dagur, you guys might need back up.” Hiccup starts. 

“Brother let us come.” Heather starts, “You don’t have to do this alone.” 

“Okay, you guys can come.” Dagur responds, turning to his wife. “Mala, would you like to come?”

“No, I've got some stuff to do here.” Mala responds, kissing her husband on the cheek “Just get those kids.” 

They all prepare to leave the island, Dagur was making sure Sleuther was okay before they left. Heather walks over to her brother tapping him on shoulder, “Dagur?” 

“Yeah Sis.” Dagur responds, looking over 

“I know losing the twins was hard.” Heather starts, “Anytime you need me when we’re finding these kids I'll be here.” 

“I appreciate that sis.” Dagur responds, turning around to face her. 

“Let’s go find these kids.” Heather tells her brother. 

---

12 years before 

Heather and Fishlegs were working on Berserker Island, “Are you sure you're okay living here?” Heather asks Fishlegs. 

“I’m sure Heather.” Fishlegs responds, “Any place you are is my home and anyways I don’t have to see Snotlout as much so win win.” Heather laughs at her boyfriend's response. Fishlegs had come to live on Berserker Island, joining Heather. Leaving Berk was weird, but Heather needed him there, she couldn’t do everything alone. The two of them talked, unpacking Fishlegs dragon figurines when they were interrupted by a terrible terror. Heather takes the note of the terrible terrors leg and reads it. “We got to go.’ Heather tells Fishlegs. 

“Why?” Fishlegs 

“Mala and Dagur invited us to meet their child.” Heather responds. 

“Mala gave birth?” Fishlegs says following behind the women. “Like a child, a baby, whose Dagur son or daughter.” 

“Yes.” Heather responds, “Let’s go.” 

The two of them left the island, flying towards Defenders of the Wing. Heather and Fishlegs land in the town square met by Throk. “Took you long enough.” Throk tells the two. 

“Is Hiccup here?” Heather asks. 

“No, I doubt he’ll be here for a while.” Throk responds, “Wanna meet the twins?” 

“Twins?” Heather starts. 

“Yep.” Throk responds, leading the two of them to where the new parents were. Heather meets her brother, giving him a hug.
“Hi Heather, Fishy.” Dagur greets, while holding one of the twins. Heather runs up to her brother looking at the bundle in his arms. 

“Whose this?” Heather asks, looking at the baby. 

“This is Dak, Dak Hámundr” Dagur tells his sister, “And his twin sister is Leyla Herleifr.” 

“Twins.” Heather says. 

“Yep, let’s hope they don’t act like Ruffnut and Tuffnut.’ Dagur responds. 

---

All of them left the island, “Do we even know where these kids are?” Fishlegs asks. 

“Throk did some talking with the traders, and he found out these kids live on an Island called Hutsgalor.” Dagur responds. 

“Great, Hutsgalor should be due north.” Fishlegs responds. 

“Then let’s go.” Hiccup responds, the group of them start flying North towards the island. After an hour of flying Heather sees the island coming. “I see the island.” 

“Let’s land in the town.” Hiccup suggests. 

“That sounds good, brother.” Dagur responds, the group of them land in the town getting the attention of the natives of the island. 

Finn runs out of his house towards the adults after seeing the dragons. “Hi, I'm Finngard!” He yells at the adults. 

“Hi Finngard.” Heather responds, while climbing off the back off her dragon. 

“That’s such a cool dragon.” Finn says looking at Windshear, “What type of dragon is it?” 

“She's a Razor whip.” Heather responds to the boy. 

“Like Cutter!” Finn yells, “But Ley taught me that Cutter is a hybrid dragon between a Deadly Nadder and a Razor whip.” 

“Ley?” Heather asks. 

“Well, her name is Leyla, but she says I can call her Ley.” Finn says, “Anyways, she's taught me all about dragons.” 

“She teaches you about dragons?” Heather asks. 

“Yeah, and Dak teaches me how to throw knives,” Finn tells the women, “Don’t tell my mum about that, I'd be grounded forever.” 

“Where do Dak and Leyla live?” Heather asks. 

“Up there.” Finn responds pointing up at the roost, “The weird part is that they haven’t come down yet, they’re usually up early.” 

“Thanks, Finngard, where is the chief?” 

“You mean Duggard?” Finngard asks, “He should be in the town hall.” Heather smiles at the boy and walks to the group of the other dragon riders. 

“Okay I have found out where the chief is.” Heather starts, “And where the kids live and something else.” 

“And that is?” Hiccup asks.

“Their names are Dak and Leyla, also going by the Rescue Riders.” Heather responds. 

“Rescue Riders?” Hiccup asks. 

“Yeah.” Heather responds, “How about we split up, some of us talk to the chief and some see if they are in their home.” 

“That sounds good, how about me, Dagur, Fishlegs, and Astrid go up to their home and Heather, the twins, and Snotlout talk to the chief.” Hiccup tells the group. 

“Sounds good, let's go.” Dagur responds, the group going up to the roost all got on their dragon and flew up to the lighthouse. The group starts looking around the front yard, Hiccup and Dagur go into the side yard finding a butch of burned or torn targets. “What have these kids been doing?” 

“No idea, but it doesn’t look good.” Hiccup responds, picking up a double headed ax that was still in a target. The ax had a dark green leather handle with the letter L carved into the wood on it. “Hiccup.” Dagur calls over. 

“Yes brother?” Hiccup asks, turning around, to face the man. 

“Check this out.” Dagur responds, handing his brother the ax. 

“Why would a kid have an ax?” Hiccup asks himself, “Other than yours.” he laughs looking up at the man, 

“Where are these kids' parents?” Dagur questions, “Let’s look inside.” 

“Sounds good.” Hiccup responds. The two of them walk into the house followed by the others who were searching with them. “Me and Dagur will search up the stairs, while you guys search down here.” 

“Sounds good.” Fishlegs responds. 

“Yep.” Astrid responds. 

Dagur and Hiccup walk up the stairs, the upper lever of the light house had two rooms that were across the hall from each other. “I check one, you check the other.” Hiccup suggests. 

“Sounds good.” Dagur responds, the redhead walks over to one of the doors. He first knocked on it but with no response he walked into the room. The room was relatively small, but well organized. There was a bed and bookshelf in the room but nothing else. The shelf was full to the brim with books, Dagur walked over to the shelf and started looking over the books, all of them were old, that looked like they were traded. One book was separate from the others and was sitting in a bag on the bedpost. He grabs the bag and takes the book out, flipping through it he realizes something, “This is Mala writing.” Dagur rushes out of the room, book in hand, and goes into the room Hiccup was in. The room was the same size as the other one but way less organized, the bed was also raised unlike the other room. 

“Dagur what’s wrong?” Hiccup asks, Dagur pushes the book into his brother’s hands. Hiccup takes the book and starts flipping through it. “This is Mala’s writing at least the beginning.” 

“How would they have this?” Dagur asks, “We haven’t seen this since the twins were taken.” 

“I know Dagur,” Hiccup starts, “The twins could actually be alive.” 

---

Fishlegs and Astrid were searching the downstairs, “There’s nothing down here.” Fishlegs says, 

“I know.” Astrid responds, before looking at the ground. Seeing something unlike the rest of the floor. “Fishlegs, there's a hatch.” 

“What?” Fishlegs responds, walking over, opening it. Both of the adults looked into the hatch, seeing a fire going. Both of them climb down and see dragons, “That’s a lot of dragons.” 

“Yep.” Astrid responds, “There's no way they tamed all these dragons.” 

“Well apparently they did.” Fishlegs responds, starting to look around the room. “Astrid, ground dragon root was used to put the dragons asleep.” 

“So that means the kids were definitely taken.” Astrid states. The new people in the sleep cave made the dragon start stirring, Winger opened his eyes and saw the two strangers. 

“Who are you!” Winger yells. 

“They can’t understand us!” Summer yells. 

“I’m well aware!” Winger yells back. 

“Then why are you asking questions!” Aggro yells. 

“Because it’s helping me!” Winger yells. 

“I don’t think it’s helping them.” Burple adds, looking over to the two adults. 

“Yeah, definitely not helping them.” Cutter responds, also looking over. 

“Let’s go out, maybe Dak and Ley are outside.” Summer suggests. 

“Let’s go!” Cutter yells, the group of dragons exit the sleep cage, and are met with other dragons. “So who are you guys?” 

“I’m Toothless, Sleuther, Stormfly, and Meatlug.” Toothless introduces. 

“And why are you at our home?” Aggro asks. 

“We're with our riders.” Stormfly responds. 

“Wait, are they the people in our cave?” Burple asks. 

“Yes.” Meatlug responds. 

“Have you seen two red-haired, ” Cutter asks, “Cause Dak and Leyla are gone.” 

“Dak and Leyla?” Sleuther asks. 

“Yeah, that’s their names, have you seen them?” Aggro asks. 

“No but I think I’ve seen their parents.” Sluether responds. 

“What?” All the dragons respond. 

---

Snotlout, Heather, and the twins were talking with Duggard. “So have you seen Dak and Leyla?” Snotlout asks. 

“I saw them yesterday!” Duggard responds, “Why?” 

“Because they have a bounty.” Heather responds. 

“Oh, I know.” Duggard responds, “They knew too I told them about it.” 

“Have you seen them today?” Heather asks. 

“No, not today.” Duggard responds. 

“Okay, thank you for your time.” Heather responds. 

“Wait-.” Duggard yells, “Why do you want to know, I’ve never seen any of you guys around here before.” 

“We just saw the bounty on the kids and wanted to make sure these kids will be okay.” Heather lies. 

“I wouldn’t worry about them, they can protect themselves.” Duggard tells them. 

“Where are they’re parents?” Heather asks. 

“Dead, the two of them are orphans, saved me from a shipwreck and started living on the island.”  Duggard tells them. 

“Okay thank y-.” Heather says. 

“Wait, who's gone?” Magnus interrupts 

“Dak and Leyla have you seen them?” Duggard asks. 

“The dragon talkers are gone. Thor answered my prayers.” Magnus yells. 

“Shut it Magnus!” Hannar yells, from her booth. 

“Dragon talkers?” Snotlout laughs. 

“Oh yeah, you guys aren’t from around here, are you?” Duggard asks. 

“No, why?” Heather laughs. 

“It's a really cool story, Dak, Leyla were saved and raised by a dragon and the two of them are able to talk to the beasts.” Duggard responds. 

“Talk to dragons?” Ruffnut laughs. 

“It sounds crazy but the things I’ve seen those two do is amazing.” Duggard responds.

“Okay, then.” Heather laughs. 

“I’m not lying ma’am,” Duggard tells her, “If you could see them, they're amazing.” 

“Okay thank you.” Heather responds, “Let’s go guys.” Heather says, turning to the others. 

The 4 of them fly up to meet the others at the roost, “You guys got to hear this.” Snotlout laughs, before seeing all the dragons, “Oh where’d the dragons come from?” 

“Long story.” Astrid responds, “What is it Snot.” 

“Oh my, the Chief told us that Dak and Leyla can understand dragons.” Snotlout laughs, “There's no way.” Snotlout’s laugh was cut off by the group of dragon roaring. 

“Leyla and Dak can do it!” Aggro yells. 

“You haven’t even met them, how'd you know!” Cutter yells as well. 

The dragon riders turn to face the dragons now roaring, “It’s like they're mad about it.” Snotlout laughs. 

The dragon growls at the man, so Snotlout quickly shuts up. “Okay anyways, the kids were taken.’ Astrid says. 

“How do you know?” Heather asks. 

“Dragons were put to sleep with dragon roots.” Fishlegs responds. 

“We need to find these kids.” Hiccup starts, “Where would they be?” 

“The poster said that they’d be met at the Northern islands.” Dagur responds, “We got to go now and get them.” 

“Um, what do we do with the other dragons?” Snotlout asks, looking at the dragons still being mad at him. 

“I say we bring them.” Astrid states. 

“Yeah, they could be useful.” Heather responds. 

“Then let’s go find them.” Hiccup says.

Notes:

This chapter was way longer than I thought it would be

Chapter 3: The Kidnapping

Summary:

Giving Leyla and Dak more trauma cause why not

Notes:

I love writing Leyla and Dak being overly sassy

Dak and Leyla were both still in the ship that took them, Dak started stirring away and looked around the area. He was 99.8% sure he went to sleep in his room but now he was in the bottom of a ship with his twin sleeping beside him. “What the-.” Dak asks himself, turning to his twin, “Leyla! Wake up!”

“Dak I thought we talked about you waking me up?” Leyla asks her twin, “So why are you in my room?”

“First I think you’ll forgive me this time.” Dak responds, “and second, you aren’t in your room.” 

Leyla sits up, opening her eyes looking around the ship, “What the heck?” Leyla asks turning to her twin, “What did you do?” 

“Wha- I didn’t kidnap us.” Dak yells. 

“You never know.” Leyla mutters, “Anyways where are we?” 

“Why are you asking me!” Dak yells. 

“I don’t know, maybe because you're the only other person in the room!” Leyla yells back. 

“Excuse, excuse.” Dak mutters. 

“You're lucky we’re tied up, or else I’d punch you.” Leyla tells her brother. 

“No you wouldn’t!” Dak yells. 

“Oh really!” Leyla yells. 

The two of them continue arguing, but shortly stop after they hear someone start walking down the stairs. “Whose that?” Dak whispers. 

“I have no clue.” Leyla responds. 

The person walks in front of the two kids, “It’s amazing how much you two act like your parents, especially since they didn’t even raise you.” Savage tells the two of them. 

“What are you talking about?” Dak asks. 

“Don’t play dumb.” Savage responds. 

“He doesn’t really have to pretend.” Leyla cuts in. 

“Oh so much like her,” Savage laughs, “You both know why there's a bounty.” 

“Not really.” Dak responds. 

“Is this how others feel when we talk to each other?” Leyla asks. 

“I think so.” Dak responds, “At least Duggard and Elbone.” 

“Yeah.” Leyla responds, “most definitely.” 

“What are you guys talking about?” Savage asks. 

“You're still here?” Leyla asks. 

“Yes, I didn’t leave.” Savage responds. 

“I thought you did.” Dak responds, “You're very forgettable.” Both of the twins burst out laughing at the man’s face.

“I’d like to agree brother.” Leyla laughs, “Extremely forgettable. Anyways, Dak-.” 

“What?” Savage asks. 

“I’m sure there is someone else here you can talk with.” Leyla tells the man. 

“Unless it was just you making all that noise upstairs.” Dak adds. Savage walks away from the two twins who started laughing at him again. 

“Too much like their father.” Savage mutters walking back up the stairs. 

“Thank Thor thought he was never going to leave.” Leyla whispers to her brother untying the ropes around her arms. 

“How'd you do that?” Dak asks after seeing his twin easily escape from the ties. 

“Merana, taught me.” Leyla responds, “Last time we dealt with Waldondo.” 

“Untie me?” Dak asks. 

“Fine,” Leyla responds, kneeling down to untie her twins hands. The two of them started looking around the lower part of the ship, “Let’s look around.” 

“Yeah.” Dak responds, the two twins start looking around the lower part of the ship, 

“Dak over here.” Leyla calls her twin over, she is standing under a window that was to high for her to see out of. 

“What Ley?” Dak asks. 

“Help me up.” Leyla tells her brother, Dak links his fingers together allowing his twin to step on it. Leyla grabs the base of the window pulling herself up more so she could see more. 

“Anything Ley?” Dak asks. 

“Not just open ocean.” Leyla responds, jumping down. 

“Dang it.” Dak mutters, “What do we do now?” 

“I’m not sure Dak.” Leyla responds. Leyla sinks down the ship wall, joined by her twin. 

“This sucks Ley.” Dak mutters. 

“Yep.” The red haired girl responds resting her head against the wall. 

The two twins sat in silence, while they heard the two men walking above them. After a while the two of them started hearing something else, “What are you doing here!” Savage yells. 

“Just came to pick up your cargo.” The person replied. 

“What are we talking about?” Savage starts, “We’re getting the bounty on the two of them.” 

“Are you?” The person replies. The two kids heard fighting above them, then someone falling. Both of the twins looked at each other, neither of them knowing what to do. They start hearing someone walk down the stairs, Dak steps in front of his twin guarding her from whatever was coming. “Hey kids.” 

“No!” Dak yells, “Creepy much!” 

“Extremely.” Leyla adds, looking over her twins shoulder. 

“Okay then kids.” The man replies, laughing at the two twins' responses. The man covers his mouth with a cloth then throws something filled with powder towards them. 

“What’s that?” Leyla asks. 

The man doesn’t answer, just laughing again while the twins start falling asleep again.  

---

The dragon riders were flying close to the water looking for ships that were passing, “We need to find these kids.” Heather says to the group. 

“They have to be somewhere on this channel.” Hiccup starts, “This is the only way to reach the northern islands.”

“We know.” Snotlout tells him, “You’ve only told us 20 times.” 

“Shut up Snotlout!” Hiccup yells back. 

“Guys there's a ship ahead!” Astrid yells, interrupting the conversation. 

“Let’s check it out.” Hiccup yells at them, The dragon riders all get in a formation expecting an attack, Dagur and Heather jump down onto the ship noticing the two men knocked out on the deck. Dagur walked over to the closer man and uses his foot to flip him over. 

“Oh shit!” Dagur yells. 

“What?” Hiccup asks. 

“It’s Savage and um he's dead.” Dagur responds. 

“What!” Hiccup yells, jumping off his dragon. “Oh gods.” 

“What about the other person?” Dagur asks, looking at the other person. 

Heather flipped over the man in front of her, looking at the man. “He looks just fine.” Heather yells. 

“What?” Dagur asks, “because Savage is dead.” 

“The most that happened to this man was being knocked out.” Heather responds. 

“Then, someone took this ship and stole the twins?” Dagur asks. 

“Pretty much, We need to find those kids now.” Hiccup yells. 

“Okay let’s keep going towards the Northern islands hopefully they’ll be there.” Astrid says to the group. 

---

Gunnar was sailing south with the two twins under the deck of the ship, he was sailing in a different direction because he didn’t want the bounty for twins, he wanted to use them for what they could do. All he could think is how many more dragons he and his crew would be able to catch with two kids that could talk to every dragon. He knew what the twins could do and he was planning to use it to get rich. 

Dak and Leyla both woke up in a new place, it wasn’t a ship but it looked like a stone cave with a built-in door on one side and a wooden gate on the other. Leyla stood up leaving her twin still sitting against the wall, there was a window above the wooden gate that she attempted to look out of. All she could see was that there was an arena outside, “What the?” Leyla asks herself. 

“Getting to know your new home?” Gunnar asks. 

“Holy!” Leyla yells, falling and turning to face the man. “Who are you?” 

“I’m no one important.” Gunnar tells her, “You and your brother are all that is important.” 

“Creepy much?” Leyla asks the man. 

“You don’t have to worry sweetheart-.” Gunnar tells her. 

“No no no no no no no.” Leyla responds, “Don’t call me that you creep!” Leyla screaming at the man woke Dak up who jumps up and stands in the middle of them. 

“Get lost!” Dak yells, protecting his twin from the man. 

“Remember I can easily restrict your food.” Gunnar laughs walking out of the room. Dak bolts over to his twin and grabs her in a hug. 

“You okay Ley?” Dak asks. 

“Yeah I’m fine.” Leyla responds, hugging her twin back. “He’s creepy.” 

“Yeah he is.” Dak responds, pulling away holding her shoulders, “He didn’t hurt you right?” 

“No, Dak.” Leyla responds, “I’m fine, everything is fine.” 

“Okay, Ley.” Dak responds, hugging his twin again. 

---

The dragon riders were back at Defenders of the Wing, they had brought the man and Savage back to the island. Mala and Throk were working on the two men, Mala walked out to the other dragon riders,

“Savage is dead, sorry” Mala tells the group. 

“Who would do this?” Hiccup asks. 

“I don’t know.” Dagur sighs, “Um Mala, can I talk to you?” 

“Sure.” Mala responds, the two of them walk into a separate room. “Dagur what’s wrong?” 

“When we were checking out the kids house I found something.” Dagur starts. 

“What?” Mala asks, Dagur pulls out the old notebook and hands it to her. Mala looked at the leather cover, noticing it automatically, “Where did you find this?” Mala starts looking through the notes to see her own handwriting in the beginning but in the end it was another person’s writing. 

“It was in one of the kids' rooms.” Dagur responds. 

“I haven’t seen this sense-” Mala starts, 

“Sense the twins went missing.” Dagur finishes. 

“Yeah.” Mala responds, “How would they have this?” 

“I think it's them.” Dagur tells her. 

“There's no way.” Mala responds. 

“Mala, hun just believe it.” Dagur responds. 

“Fine, I’ll try.” Mala responds, setting the notebook back down.

 The two of them walked about to the rest of the riders who were all talking, “We’re going to need more help.” Hiccup starts, “This person seems horrible, I don’t know what he’d do to those kids.” 

“We need to go to the Northern Islands now.” Astrid says. 

They all leave again flying towards the island

Notes:

Im writing this because i'm hyperfocused on Lost Ties: Some Forgotten, Some Left Behind by JcArtist_10 cause it is so amazing and I can’t stop reading it so if ur looking for a really good fanfic about HTTYD with Rescue Riders this is what I suggest read it give it the attention it deserves

Chapter 4: The Arena

Summary:

Shit starts, and Gunnar is bullied

Notes:

This chapter was really fun to write

It was the next day, the twins had been mainly left alone other than Gunnar taunting them again, from outside the door. Leyla and Dak were sitting on the floor of their cell, “I miss the dragons.” Dak mutters, to his twin. 

“I do too.” Leyla responds, “What do you even think they’re doing?” 

“Probably panicking because their translators are gone.” Dak laughs. 

“Probably.” Leyla agrees, the twins continued talking and laughing when they were interrupted by Gunnar again.
“Hey kiddies.” Gunnar tells them. 

“No!” Leyla yells, “Go away.” 

“Yeah don’t ruin this by being yourself!” Dak yells. 

“Okay.” Gunnar laughs, walking away. 

“He's annoying.” Leyla tells her twin. 

“I’m annoying?” Gunnar asks, walking in. 

“Thor dude!” Leyla yells, “Thought you left!”

“And yes!” Dak adds, “Very annoying.” 

“Anyways kiddies, thought I’d tell you.” Gunnar starts, “The reason you're here is starting today.” 

“And that reason is?” Dak asks standing up. 

“Training dragons of course.” Gunnar responds. 

“We’re not doing that.” Leyla responds, standing up beside her twin. 

“Yeah, you are.” Gunnar laughs, walking out of the room closing the door behind him. Dak and Leyla look at each other confused before they’re interrupted by the wooden door opening. The red headed twins turn towards the door and walk towards it. The two of them are met by guards forcing them to completely go into the arena, “Have fun kids.” Gunnar yells from above, from where he was sitting in the stands. 

“Soo.” Dak drags, “What dragon do you think we’re going to train?” 

“Why is that your concern?” Leyla asks. 

“Because I want to know if we’re going to see something cool.” Dak responds. 

“Dak.” Leyla mutters, the two of them look up at the door on the other side and see it opening it. A dragon walks out being pushed by hunters. The door shuts behind the dragon with the hunters leaving the arena as well, the dragon looks up at the children, “I think that’s a monstrous nightmare.” 

“So cool.” Dak mutters. 

“Dak!” Leyla yells. 

“They sound cool.” Dak responds. 

“Why would they put kids in here with me?” The monstrous nightmare asks. 

“Your guess is as good as ours.” Leyla responds. 

“Did- did you just answer me?” The monstrous nightmare asks. 

“Yep,” Dak responds, “Cool trick right.” 

“So you're working with them?” The monstrous nightmare yells at the twins. 

“No!” Leyla yells, with no avail the dragon starts charging at the two of them. The twins get out of the way of the dragon, and look around the arena. There was no cover or shields they could use, Dak was standing near the Monstrous nightmare’s tail attempting to see his twin on the other side of the arena, when he hit with the dragons tail throwing him into the stone wall. 

Dak falls down the wall and drops into a sitting position on the floor, “You're going to have to try harder than that!” Gunnar yells at them. 

“Oh shut it!” Leyla yells at the man who turned the dragon's attention to her, “Shoot.” The dragon starts walking towards the girl. “I promise neither of us are working with them!” 

“How could you prove that?” The dragon asks stalking towards her. The monstrous nightmare was merely feet away from the girl's face walking closer. 

“I promise we’ll get you out of here.” Leyla assures, “But you have to trust us.” Leyla puts one of her hands in front of her as an attempt to calm the dragon, unexpectedly the dragon stalks forward and puts its snout underneath the girl's hand. “It’s okay.” Leyla mutters towards the dragon, “What's your name?” 

“Ása” The dragon responds. 

“Okay Ása, we’ll get you out of here.” Leyla mutters. 

“Impressive!” Gunnar yells walking in with hunters behind him, “I really thought, the dragon was going to get you.” Leyla takes her hand away from the dragon, turning to face the hunters entering, “Take the dragon back to its cell!” The hunters walk towards the dragon with spears in hand, “Oh and get the kiddies back to their cell.” Leyla was pushed out of the way and grabbed by another hunter, Dak on the other hand was just picked up. 

The twins were thrown into their cells, Leyla ran to her twin who was sitting against the wall. “You good Dak?” Leyla asks, sitting next to him. 

“Yeah, I’m fine Ley.” Dak responds, using the wall to sit up, “You were cool in there.” 

Leyla laughs at her twin’s answer, “Thanks, Dak.” 

“Next time, let me protect you though.” Dak tells her, “I’m older.” 

“You don’t know that.” Leyla responds. 

“Let me believe.” Dak responds. 

“Thor give me strength.” Leyla says. 

Dak laughs at his twin and lays his head on her shoulder. 

---

The dragon riders were flying towards the northern islands, mostly flying in silence other than the Ruffnut and Tuffnut attempting to be funny. “Okay guys when we get to the island, we need to check the docks first then the rest of the island.” Hiccup tells the group. 

“Got it Hiccup.” Astrid responds. The dragon riders land on the docks at the island and start searching around. The dragon riders start talking around. 

“Have you seen two red haired preteens?” Dagur asks one of the dock workers. 

“No.” The worker responds. 

They all talk around but get no answers, “Where would they be?” Heather asks. 

“No idea.” Hiccup responds, “They should’ve been on that channel if not on the island.” 

“Where should we check now?” Astrid asks. 

“No ide-.” Hiccup starts but stops after hearing someone talking next to them. 

“Have you heard about the dragon training arena?” 

“You mean the ones with the kids that trained a monstrous nightmare?” 

“Yes! They’re starting to sell tickets to see them!” 

“Oh, I’m totally going to see those kids tame dragons.” 

The dragon riders look over to the people talking, Dagur walks towards them followed close behind by Hiccup. “Dagur don’t hurt them.” Hiccup starts.
“I wasn’t planning on it.” Dagur responds, tapping one of the men on the shoulder, “Heard you guys talking about kids training dragons?” 

“Yeah, really cool.” 

“Where would we find this?” Dagur asks. 

“No way, your dragon riders, it'll be gone if you guys find it.” 

Dagur laughs before grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt, “You know those two are actual children right? Of course you do, so you're going to tell us where to find this dragon trains arena or you're going off this dock.” 

“You wouldn’t.” 

“Do you believe that?” Hiccup cuts in

“No not really, there at the island on the south of the northern markets!” 

“Great.” Dagur smiles, before throwing the man into the water. 

“Dagur!” Heather yells

“He had that coming.” Dagur responds. 

“Yes!” Ruffnut and Tuffnut yell. 

“Okay we got to get going to save these kids.” Astrid says to the group. 

“Okay, okay.” Ruffnut responds. 

“Let’s go!” Astrid yells. 

The dragon riders flew towards the island the twins should be on, “Okay guys we have no idea what we’re walking into here, let's be safe.” Hiccup tells them 

---

Leyla and Dak were sitting in silence, Dak was using Leyla as support after being thrown into the wall. “Are you sure you're, okay?” Leyla asks her twin. 

“Yes Ley.” Dak responds. 

“Just making sure.” Leyla mutters, looking up at the wooden door. 

The red-haired siblings were sitting in silence when they were interrupted by the wooden door being opened, “Hey kids.” Gunnar tells them, walking towards them.

 Leyla jumps up standing in front of her twin. “Don’t hurt him!” 

“Don’t Leyla, we’re only bringing you in for this dragon.” Gunnar tells her. 

“Why?” Leyla asks 

“Because Dak is still hurt.” Gunnar laughs, “I may be ruthless but not cruel.” 

“Okay then.” Leyla responds, Gunnar points into the arena Leyla walks by the man into the arena. Gunnar following close behind her, 

“Enjoy your next challenge sweetie.” Gunnar told her.

“Call me that again,” Leyla starts, “and punch your face in.” 

Gunnar laughs, walking back out of the arena. Leyla looked towards the dragon being brought out. Its mouth was muzzled, and the guards were standing far away from the dragon. 

“A Skrill?” Leyla yells at the man. 

“Yep, have fun kid.” Gunnar responds, signing his hunters to let the dragon go.

Notes:

Comment what you think please

Chapter 5: The Skrill

Summary:

One more chapter for the day

Leyla was face to face with a skrill, “What do you want me to do!” Leyla yells up at Gunnar. 

“Train it. Obviously.” Gunnar responds. 

“I knew that!” Leyla yells, “How!” 

“Figure it out!” Gunnar yells. 

“So helpful.” Leyla mutters, turning to face the dragon, “Hi.” The Skrill didn’t respond and threw a burst of lightning at the girl. “Not in the mood to talk I see.” Leyla responds, diving out of the way of the blast of lighting. 

“What do you want?” The Skrill asks the girl. 

“Not dying would be great.” Leyla responds. 

“Did you just answer me?” The skrill asks. 

“Yep,” Leyla responds, “Cool trick right.” The girl laughs trying to calm the dragon down. 

“How?” The Skrill asks. 

“It’s a long story.” Leyla responds, carefully walking towards the dragon “But for now how about you don’t kill me.” Leyla carefully reaches her hand out towards the dragon. 

“Dragon rider attack!” A hunter yells from above. 

“Dragon rider?” Leyla mutters, 

---

The dragon riders were flying over the island, “Okay we need to find the arena.” Hiccup tells the group. 

“I think it’s in the middle of the island.” Fishlegs says to the group. 

“When we get there, Dagur, Heather, and I will find the kids while the rest of you destroy the camp.” Hiccup tells the group. 

“Got it Hiccup.” Fishlegs says splitting off with the others in his group. 

“Okay, let’s go find these kids.” Heather says to her siblings.

The group all get off their dragons and find the door to enter the cages attached to the arena. The 3 of them and their dragon go until they find a door, “This door, guys.” Toothless blasts the door open, and the three of them enter the door. Dak jumps up at the new presentence in the room. 

“Who are you guys?” Dak yells at them, backing up or attempting too with his injury. 

“Where not here to hurt you or anything.” Heather tells him. 

“How would I know that?” Dak asks, “My sister is being made to tame a dragon right now.” 

“What?” Dagur asks, “Why not with you?” 

“I got hurt from the monstrous nightmare, so I got left behind.” Dak answers. Dagur walks up to the window that was showing the arena. 

“Guys we got to hurry.” Dagur tells them, “They put a Skrill in with her.” 

“What!” Hiccup yells, “Heather stay with the kid while we get the girl.” 

“Got it Hiccup.” Heather responds, her two brothers run to find a way into the arena leaving Heather alone with the boy.

Heather took in his appearance, he had pale skin, green eyes, and red hair and direct copy of Dagur while he had his mother's accent, all Heather knew is that there was no way this kid wasn’t Dak Hámundr Berserker son of Mala and Dagur. 

---

Leyla was attempting to calm down the Skrill after the dragon rider attack started, “Okay okay.” Leyla says towards the dragon, “Let’s calm down again.” 

“No!” The Skrill yells at the girl with a burst of lighting. 

“What do you mean no!” Leyla yells. The dragon doesn’t answer and shoots out more lighting causing Leyla to go flying away from the dragon. “We were just talking.” 

“That was before I knew you were working for them.” The Skrill yells at her. 

“I’m not working with the hunters I promise.” Leyla responds. 

“That’s what they all say.” The Skrill tells the girl, throwing another bolt of lightning at the girl wall.

Leyla fell onto her stomach looking up at the dragon stalking towards her, the Skrill was going to blast her again but was stopped. Hiccup and Dagur ran into the arena stopping the dragon from firing, Hiccup stood in between the girl and the dragon while Dagur ran over to his daughter.

Dagur knelt next to the girl taking a look over her, she looked just like Mala, with red hair to match his. The only thing out of place was the blood dripping down her face, Leyla looked up towards the man knelt beside her. 

“Hey kid you, okay?” Dagur asks her, Leyla doesn’t answer and just nods towards the man. “Ok kid we need to get you out of here.” 

“Not yet.” Leyla mutters towards the man standing up, “Where the door, I need to do something.” 

Dagur looks at the girl who at that point wasn’t even walking but stumbling, “What do you need to do?” Dagur asks 

“Free Ása.” Leyla mutters, “A monstrous nightmare, I promised I’d free them.” 

“Okay then.” Dagur responds, “At least like me, help you.” Leyla nods and Dagur stands up beside her. “The doors over there let’s go.”

The two of them leave the arena leaving Hiccup who was still calming the Skrill down. Leyla was attempting to run down the halls to where the cages were but after getting thrown around, she was struggling. “I don’t think you should be walking or trying to run.” 

“I don't care random man; I don't have time to be careful.” Leyla responds. 

Way too much like Mala, Dagur thought to himself. “Okay then kid.”

The two of them continue walking down the hall until the younger one stops in front of one of the cells. It was one of the only cells with a dragon in it, a green monstrous nightmare from what Dagur could see.

 Dagur sees his daughter smile at the dragon in the cell and say something to it. “I promised I’d get you out.” Leyla tells the dragon. Dagur walks behind the girl, to see the dragon which was now looking happy at the kid. 

“Nice to see you again kid.” Ása tells Leyla. 

“Nice to see you too Ása.” Leyla Responds. 

“Did you name the dragon?” Dagur asks. 

“No she told me her-.” Leyla says cutting herself off. 

Dagur remembers what Snotlout was laughing about a few days' prior, “It's true isn’t it?” Dagur asks. 

“What’s true?” Leyla asks. 

“You and your brother can understand the dragons,” Dagur tells the girl, “That's how you know Ása’s name.” Leyla doesn’t answer and looks down at the ground. 

“How’d you figure it out?” Leyla asks. 

“We went to Hutsgalor, and talked with Duggard, he told us.” Dagur told her. 

Leyla reaches to touch the dragon's noise, “Why were you looking for us?” Leyla asks. 

“I’ll tell you and Dak once we get you safe.” Dagur tells her, “Now let’s get Ása out of here.” Dagur starts looking around for a way to open the door, finding a lever. Dagur pulls the lever opening the cell for the dragon, the dragon walks towards the girls before flying out of the cave. 

“Now we can go.” Leyla says to the man, turning around to face Dagur. 

“Okay kid.” Dagur says to the girl, “This way.” 

---

All of the dragon riders met in the seating area near the arena, Leyla and Dak were both sitting down with the adults surrounding them. Tuffnut was crouched in front of the two of them, “It's amazing.”

“What’s amazing?” Leyla asks. 

“How much you look like your par-.” Tuffnut is cut off by Snotlout smacking him, “Nevermind.” 

“We need to get them to the Defenders of the Wing.” Hiccup starts, “They need a medic.” 

“We’re fine.” Dak starts. 

“I’d beg to differ.” Astrid says, pushing Leyla’s hair out of her face revealing the deep cut, “That’s going to need to be looked at. Not to mention you both got thrown into walls, so I’d guess at least some more injuries.” 

“Fine.” Dak mutters. 

“Dak how about you ride with Heather and Leyla will ride with Dagur.” Hiccup tells them. Neither of them answers, but Leyla gives the man a nod. “Okay we got to go.” 

The dragon riders lead the kids to where the other dragons were, Leyla looks at the black dragon standing with a bunch of the colorful ones. “Is that a night fury?” Leyla asks Hiccup. 

“Yeah, you don't have to be sc-.” Hiccup starts. 

“No.” Leyla cuts off, “He’s incredible.” 

“I know right.” Toothless tells her. 

“A little snobby.” Dak asks. 

“How did you?" Toothless asks. 

“No way.” Snotlout starts, “It’s not possible.” 

“We can settle this later.” Dagur tells them, “But for now let go, these kids need medical help.” 

“Okay, okay.” Snotlout tells him

Notes:

Comment what you think

Chapter 6: Homeward bound

Summary:

Home time

Notes:

I gave Leyla trauma and I have no regrets

The dragon riders were flying back to Defenders of the Wing, most of them were talking about what happened, the only two not talking were the redheaded twins. “You kids okay?” Hiccup asks flying in between the two dragons Dak and Leyla were on. 

“Yep.” Dak mutters. 

“Just great.” Leyla adds. 

“Okay then kid.” Hiccup responds, “We’ll be at Defender of the Wing soon.”

“Great.” Dak mutters. They all flew in awkward silence as they went towards The Defenders of the Wing, they landed in the middle of the town and dismounted their dragons. Dak and Leyla start looking around the island from where they stood, “This place is so cool.” 

None of the dragon riders comment on what the boy said, the dragon riders start walking towards the medical center. When they were interrupted, the group of the dragon ran towards the kids. Dak and Leyla were both tackled by their dragons, the adults watched as the two kids reunited with their dragons. Dagur was listening to them when he starts hearing the twins start laughing at their dragon's reactions. 

---

9 years before

It was months before the twins were kidnapped, the two twin 3 year olds were running around the island. Mala and Dagur were away at the Northern Markets leaving Throk to babysit the twins. He was chasing them both attempting to keep them entertained until they’re parents returned, Throk stopped running after the twins to catch his breath for a minute. While he was hunched over catching his breath, he heard a thump followed by a cry. He looked up seeing Leyla sitting on the ground with Dak next to her. The man ran over to the two twins crouching down next to them, noticing the girl's ripped pant leg with  “What happened?” 

“I tripped.” The young girl told the man, Throk stood up, picking the red haired toddler up in the process. “I got hurt.” Leyla mutters leaning her head against the man's shoulder. 

“I know, Leyla.” Throk responds, “How about we get you patched up then we can see the eruptodon.” 

“Yes!” Leyla yells. 

“Okay.” Throk laughs, then starts walking to where he could patch his niece up. He sat her down on the bench and went to grab stuff to patch up the kid. Dak ran over to where his sister was and climbed up on the bench to sit next to his twin. 

“Ley you okay?” Dak asks, Leyla shakes her head, causing Dak to hug his twin until Throk walks back over. 

“Okay, Leyla.” Throk says to the girl kneeling down with the bandages, the older man bandages the girl's knee with both of the twins watching. “Okay, little miss, you're done.” Throk tells her, setting her back down on the ground. 

“Can we see the eruptodon now?” Leyla asks. 

“Yes, let’s go.” Throk responds, walking towards the eruptodon with the two twins. The three of them were talking with each other about the eruptodon when they were interrupted by the arrival of Mala and Dagur. The twins looked up at their uncle for approval to run to their parents, once the two of them saw the man nod they ran towards their parents. The two red haired twins hugged their parents, Dagur picked up his daughter spinning her around, causing the girl to laugh at him. Dagur settled his daughter on his hip, finally noticing the rip in Leyla’s pants on the knee. 

“What happened?” Dagur asks, looking towards the bandage. 

“I fell.” Leyla responds. 

“Did Throk help you?” Mala asks. 

“Yep!” Leyla yells. 

“Good.” Mala laughs. 

---

Dak and Leyla were sitting on a bed in the medical area of the Defenders of the Wing, with their dragon next to them. Throk walks up to the two of them with bandages in hand, “Can I bandage your forehead.” Leyla nods, Throk sat down next to the girl moving the red hair out of the way of the wound. Throk puts the bandage over the wound, taping it to place. “There we go.” Throk tells them while standing up. 

“Thanks.” Leyla tells the man. 

“No problem.” Throk responds walking away towards the other adults.

“How are they?” Hiccup asks, quietly enough for the twin kids not to hear. 

“Physically they're fine, just some cuts and bruises but I don’t know about anything else.” Throk responds. 

Dagur looks at the two kids, both of them were talking quietly to each other, not paying attention to the adults also in the room. Mala hadn’t seen them yet mainly because she was doing work and none of them had been able to see her yet. “It’s getting late.” Dagur starts, “How about you guys get going and we’ll get the twins settled.” 

“Okay, brother.” Hiccup responds, all of the dragon riders left except for one. 

“Dagur, if you need anything, terror  mail me.” Heather tells her brother. 

“I will Heather.” Dagur responds, hugging his sister. Heather walks out of the room leaving Dagur, Throk, and the twins. “Okay kids, let's show you two where you're sleeping tonight.” 

“Okay.” Leyla mutters standing up from the bed with Dak following her. The four of them walked out of the building Dagur leading the twins. They walk into Mala and Dagur’s house, Dagur opens the first door before turning to the twins. 

“You guys stay here, and if you need anything I’ll be down the hall.” Dagur tells them, getting nods from the two twins. The two of the kids walked into the room followed by the red haired man, the bedroom was plain having two beds each one next to one of the walls. There was a wooden desk in one of the corners and a chest on the other side. 

“Before you leave, where are our dragons?” Dak asks the man turning around. 

“They're in the stables with Sleuther.” Dagur responds, “They’ll be fine in there I promise.” The twins nod, and Dagur walks out of the room. The man leaves the house walking to where his wife was, Mala was still working on trivial matters unaware of what has been happening. Dagur walks into the room noticing his wife working, “Mala, dear.” 

Mala turns around at the voice, “Hi.” Mala greets, standing up hugging her husband, “Did you find those kids.” 

“Yep.” Dagur responds, smiling, “They’re amazing, sweet, smart.” 

“Oh really.” Mala laughs. 

“Yes, they grew up so much.” Dagur tells her, “Leyla knows so much about dragons, and oh-.” He cuts himself off, “She’s just like you, and Dak cares so much, his protective, and sweet, and-.” 

“He’s just like you?” Mala asks. 

Dagur laughs at her, responds, and nods. “There in the house, so if you’d like to join me we can tell them about everything in the morning.” 

Mala nods, and the two of them walk towards their home.

---

It was about midnight, Dagur and Mala were still sleeping in their room when they were awoken by something. It was a scream waking them up, Dagur jumped up running to the twins room followed closely by Mala. Dagur opens the door then sees Leyla attempting to stop crying with Dak hugging her. Dagur and Mala walk in the room alerting the twins, Leyla looks up at them, “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-.” 

“No it's okay, what happened?” Dagur asks, kneeling in front of the two twins. 

“It was just a nightmare, no big deal.” Leyla responds. 

“What was it about?” Mala asks, sitting next to her. 

“Gunnar.” Leyla mutters. 

“Whose that?” Mala asks. 

“The guy from the arena.” Leyla mutters, the red haired girl leans into her brother who hugged her again. 

“It’s okay, you’ll never have to see him again.” Dagur tells the twins, causing nods from the twins. “We’ll be in our room if you need anything.” Mala stands up and the two of them walk out of them room. Dak and Leyla were left alone, Leyla was still laying on her twin Dak hugging her back. 

“It’ll be okay Ley.” Dak tells her. 

“I know Dak.” Leyla responds, Dak stands up and walks to his bed, both of them going back to sleep.

Notes:

Dak's going to get his fair share of trauma in the next chapter

Chapter 7: Guilt

Summary:

Dak is guilty and secrets are revealed

Notes:

The nickname Ley ley was something I called my old friend names Leyla so I used it here

It was later in the night, the people in the house were mostly all asleep except for one. Dak was wide awake, not even trying to sleep. He was watching his sister sleep, she had a nightmare about Gunnar and Dak couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t think about going to sleep when he couldn’t protect his sister. It was his fault she had the nightmare, it was his fault they met Gunnar if he worked harder to protect her it would’ve never happened. It was his own responsibility to protect her and the others. Dak sat wide awake for hours, until he saw the sun start rising. 

 

The sun had just started rising, Leyla woke up and rolled to see Dak. He was wide awake resting his head on the wall. “Dak?” Leyla asks, sitting up. 

“Oh, Ley.” Dak says, looking at her. 

“How long have you been up?” Leyla asks the boy. 

“Not very long.” Dak answers, “Just a few minutes.” Leyla stands up from the bed and walks over to her brother. Sitting down on the bed with him, the red haired boy’s eyes were bloodshot from being awake. 

“Dak really?” Leyla asks. 

“Yes, Leyla I’m fine.” Dak responds. 

“Okay Dak.” Leyla mutters, Leyla leans her head on the wall next to her brother’s. The two of them sat like that for a while before hearing a knock on the door. 

“Are you two awake?” Mala asks through the door. 

“Yeah.” Leyla responds, Mala opens the door to see the two twins. 

“Hi.” Dak greets. 

“Breakfast is done if either of you are hungry.” Mala tells the two. 

“Okay.” Dak mutters. 

“Thank you.” Leyla tells the women, the girl stands from the bed pulling her twin up in the process. The two twins follow the women to the kitchen sitting down at the table. 

 

Mala walks out of the room towards her and Dagur’s bedroom. Sitting on the dresser was a notebook, the notebook she lost years ago when the twins were taken. Mala grabs it and walks back out towards the twins, she sets the notebook on the table in front of the kids. 

“Hey my dragon diary.” Leyla tells her, grabbing it from the table, “How did you get this?” 

“We found it when we were searching for you two.” Mala responds. 

Leyla hugs the book close to her chest before putting it back down on the table, “Thanks.” 

---

9 years before

It was morning, Dagur and Dak had gone to visit Heather and Fishlegs leaving Leyla and Mala on the island. Mala was sitting at the table writing in her notebook and Leyla was on the floor next to her. Leyla had stood up randomly and looked towards her mother. “Mum.” Mala looked towards her daughter who had her hand us a way of asking to get pulled up. The woman laughed at her daughter and pulled her up into her lap, Leyla looked at the notebook on the table before turning to Mala. “Mum.” 

“Yes, Miss Leyla.” Mala responds, looking her daughter in the eyes. 

“I see book?” Leyla asks. Mala reaches onto the table grabbing the notebook off of it handing it to her daughter. 

“Be careful with it.” Mala tells her, Leyla nods, opening the notebook. The notebook only had writing in the beginning of it and on the first pages were dragon classes. Leyla carefully starts flipping through her mothers notebook looking at the writing on the pages. The sound of a horn interrupts the moment between the two, “Looks like Dad and Dak are back, wanna go meet them?” Leyla nods, and Mala reaches to take the notebook. 

Leyla shakes her head at her mothers actions, “Mine now.” Leyla tells her. 

“Leyla.” Mala starts, “You can look at it all you want but it’s not yours.” Leyla lets out a dramatic sigh and hands the notebook to her mother, “Thank you.” Mala sets the notebook down on the table and picks up the younger girl, “Let’s go find Dagur and Dak.” 

---

Mala watches as her daughter looks through the notebook that was formerly hers, they had eaten already so now they were all talking at the table. “So we need to talk to you about something.” Mala starts, looking at her husband. 

“What?” Leyla asks. 

“So there was a reason that you two had a bounty.” Mala starts. 

“The reason is?” Dak asks. 

“Years ago there was a kidnapping of two twins, and you two were those twins.” Mala tells her. 

“What?” Dak asks, “There’s no way our parents are dead.” 

“They aren’t dead.” Dagur interrupts. 

“How do you know that?” Leyla asks. 

“Because we’re your parents.” Dagur blurts out. 

“No no no.” Dak tells the man, “No way.” 

“It’s true.” Mala responds. 

“It’s not possible.” Leyla mutters, standing up. 

“Leyla.” Mala starts. Leyla doesn’t answer and just walks back to the room her and Dak were staying in, Dak was following close behind leaving the adults alone. “So what do we do now?” 

Leyla and Dak were both sitting next to each other on a shared bed, “There’s no way right?” Leyla asks. 

“I don’t know Ley.” Dak responds, Leyla sighs, laying her head on her brother’s shoulder. “It’s okay Ley ley.” The girl laughs at the nickname. 

“I don’t know what to do or think.” Leyla mutters, “Is this how you feel all the time.” 

“Haha, so funny.” Dak tells her. 

“I’m hilarious.” Leyla tells her twin. 

“Sure.” Dak mutters, “How about we go see the dragons?” Leyla doesn’t respond but nods. 

The two of the stand up from the bed and start walking towards the door but Leyla stops her twin, “Dak.” 

“Yeah, Ley.” Dak stops. 

“We should find a different way out.” Leyla tells him, “You know so we don’t have to deal with conversation.” 

“Yeah.” Dak responds, he starts looking around the room before looking towards the window. Dak opens the shutters, “Ley over here.” Leyla walks over to the window, Dak helps her out of the window before jumping out after her. “Okay let’s go.” The two twins start walking towards where they thought the dragon stables were, the two of them walk in silence before Leyla stops suddenly. “Ley, what's wrong?” 

Leyla was facing another dragon that was near the middle of the town, “One second.” Leyla responds, walking towards the dragon. The two twins enter the gate and look at the dragon in front of them, “It’s an eruptodon.” 

“See you, you still remember.” Throk starts walking over to the two kids. 

“Remember what?” Leyla asks. 

“When you two were little you wanted to know everything about eruptodon dragons, so you could remember everything about the eruptodon.” 

Leyla laughs at the man's story, “See nothing changed.” Dak tells the two 

“What are you two doing out here?” Throk asks. 

“Looking for the dragon stables.” Dak responds, “We wanted to see our dragons.” 

“Then let me show you.” Throk responds showing his niece and nephew where they’re dragons were. Both of the twins went towards their dragons Throk leaving the two of them. 

“Where have you two been?’ Cutter asks the two. 

“It’s been forever.” Aggro complains. 

“I know.” Leyla responds. 

“We’ve been busy.” Dak responds. 

“Too busy to see us.” Burple says. 

“You know that's not what they meant, Burple.” Summer responds, “What happened?” 

“Let’s just say we met our parents.” Leyla tells the dragon, sitting down next to her. 

“You saw ghosts!” Burple yells. 

“No Burple.” Dak sighs, “They are alive.”

“What!” The dragon yells. 

“Our reaction too.” Leyla mutters, “Our parents are alive and just fine, not dead in a shipwreck.” 

“Wasn’t expecting that.” Cutter mumbles. 

“You and me both.” Dak mutters. 

The twins sat with their dragons talking about everything that had happened in the past few days, “You met a Skrill?” Cutter asks the girl. 

“Yep.” Leyla responds. 

“That’s so cool.” Cutter tells her. 

---

Dagur and Mala were sitting at the table, unknowing of what they should do. When Dagur stood up, “Dagur, where are you going?” Mala asks her husband. 

“Going to check on them.” Dagur responds, “It’s been an hour.” 

Mala jumps up following her husband to their children's room, Dagur knocks on the door with no response. The man cracks open the door just enough to see that neither of the twins were in there. “Mala they’re gone.”

Notes:

Burple freaking out about ghosts was needed

Chapter 8: Family time

Dagur and Mala rushes into the now empty room, “Where would they have gone?” Mala asks. 

“If they’re trying to leave the island they’d have to go to where the dragons are.” Dagur responds, the two of them walk to find the dragons but are stopped by Throk. 

“The twins are in with the dragon, they’re fine and not trying to leave.” Throk tells the royals. 

“Okay, thank you Throk.” Mala sighs, the two of them walk to where the dragons were, looking inside they could see the twins sitting on the ground surrounded by their dragons. Mala opens the door alerting the group of them, both of the twins whip their heads around to face the door. Dak turns back around once seeing who it was, Leyla on the other hand turned to face the women. The couple walked into where the dragons were, the dragons being notically more relaxed then they were before. 

“Sorry if we scared you.” Leyla mutters towards the adults. 

“It’s fine.” Mala assures, walking towards the group, “We’re sorry for dropping that on you both.” Dagur followed close behind his wife. Mala sat down next to the twins, Dagur doing the same thing afterwards. “So to attempt to make things better ask any questions you have?” 

“Any question?” Dak asks. 

“Yep.” Dagur assures. 

“Okay, do we have middle names?” Leyla asks starting it. 

“Yes.” Mala smiles, “Dak your middle name is Hámundr it means battle, combat, and protection.” 

“That’s so cool.” Dak smiles. 

“And Leyla your middle name is Herleifr it means warrior and legacy.” Mala tells the girl. 

“Cool.” Leyla tells the women. 

“Okay.” Dak starts, “Do you have any stories about us?” 

“Yep.” Dagur laughs, “One time, Leyla got hurt and Throk had to bribe her with the eruptodon.” 

“So some things never change.” Dak laughs. 

“So, did you guys look for us?” Leyla mutters. 

Dagur moves over to the younger girl and wraps his arm around her shoulders, “We looked for you two every day.” 

“But if we were in the shipwreck then what happened to you guys?” Dak asks. 

“We weren’t in the shipwreck.” Mala tells the boy. 

“What?” Leyla asks. 

“The two of you were taken, and then shipwrecked.” Dagur explains. 

Leyla leans into the older man next to her, “So you guys never left us?” Leyla asks. 

“No.” Dagur responds, “We would’ve never wanted to leave you two.” 

The younger red-head smiles, before Dak interrupts. “So anymore funny stories?” 

“Yep.” Mala laughs, the group of them continued telling stories and asking questions before Dagur interrupted. 

“So can I ask you two a question?” Dagur asks. 

“Yeah.” Dak responds. 

“How did you guys survive the shipwreck?” Dagur asks. 

“Dagur!” Mala yells. 

“No, it's fine.” Leyla responds, “We were saved by a mother dragon, Winger’s mother, she saved us from the shipwreck and raised us until she-.” 

“She what?” Dagur asks. 

“She was killed by dragon hunters,” Leyla tells the adults, sitting up from leaning on Dagur,  “so since that day we started saving dragons to pay her back for saving us.” 

“And after that we saved a Duggard the Decisive who invited us to live on Hutsgalor, and we became the Rescue Riders.” Dak finishes. 

“The Rescue Riders?” Mala asks. 

“Yep.” Leyla responds. 

Dagur laughs, causing the group to look at him. “I guess it runs in the family.” 

“What?” Dak asks. 

“A while ago, we saved the King of Dragons from dragon hunters and you guys have grown to save dragons.” Dagur explains. 

“The King of Dragons?” Dak asks. 

“Yep the King of Dragons.” Dagur responds. 

“Isn’t the King of Dragons a Bewilderbeast?” Leyla asks. 

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Dagur asks. 

“We found these crystals from the back of the Bewilderbeast that can control dragons.” Dak interrupts. 

“What!” Mala yells, “Please tell me they’re well hidden.” 

“Well they’re in the ocean, so I doubt anyone can find them.” Leyla responds. 

“Okay.” Mala sighs, “We can talk more about this later, but for now how about we go back home before it gets too cold.” 

“Okay.” Dak responds, turning to the dragons, “See you guys tomorrow.” 

“Oh yeah one more thing.” Leyla starts, standing next to her twin, “So us being raised by a dragon made us able to do something.” 

“And that is?” Mala asks. 

“We can understand what the dragons say.” Leyla tells her.
“What?” Mala asks. 

“Yeah.” Dak mutters, “I know it sounds crazy but we aren’t lying and we can prove it.” Dak turns his back to the women, “Hold up any number.” 

“Dak.” Mala sighs. 

“Just do it please.” Dak responds. 

Mala sighs and holds up 6 fingers, “Winger?” Dak asks. 

“Six.” Winger responds. 

“Six.” Dak repeats. 

Mala looks surprised and changes the number to an eight. 

“Eight.” Winger tells the boy. 

“Eight.” Dak repeats. 

Mala changes the number for the last time to a three. 

“Three.” Winger tells the boy. 

“Three.” Dak repeats before turning to face the women. 

“That was-.” Mala starts. 

“Amazing?” Leyla asks. 

“Yeah.” Mala smiles at the two, “Okay now let’s go before it gets cold.” 

“Okay.” Leyla responds. 

The twins say goodbye to their dragons and the four of them leave walking towards their home, the sun beginning to set as they walk. “Hey Ley.” Dak starts. 

“What Dak?” Leyla asks. 

“Race you home!” Dak yells running off. 

“Oh you little!” Leyla yells, running after her twin. 

Mala and Dagur laughed while watching the two twins, “Oh my.” Mala laughs. 

“They're competitive.” Dagur laughs. 

“I wonder where they got it from?” Mala asks. 

“I wonder.” Dagur laughs, “We better catch up with them before they leave us behind.” 

“Yeah, let’s go.” Mala responds. 

---

Gunnar was on the docks of his new base, when one of his hunters walked up to him. “What are you going to do now?” The hunter asks. 

“We need to get those twins back.” Gunnar responds. 

“Where will we find them?” The hunter asks. 

"I don't know but we'll find them." Gunnar responds. 

The two's conversation was interrupted by someone running up to them, "Sir we have someone who knows about those kids!" 

"Where are they?" Gunnar asks. 

"He just sailed in." The hunter responds. 

"Okay lead me to him." Gunnar responds, the hunter lead Gunnar to a ship that had a Hutsgalor flag on it. 

"Hello hello." Magnis, tells the man unboarding the ship, "I've been told you need those Rescue Runts." 

"Yes." Gunnar responds. 

"Well, I know a way of bring them out." Magnis responds, "And something else."

"And that way is?" Gunnar asks. 

"They always need to protect attack Hutsgalor they'll come running." Magnis responds.

"And what's the other thing?" Gunnar asks.

"The Rescue Runts know where the Bewilderbeast crystals are." Magnis tells him. 

"What is that?" Gunnar asks. 

"The Bewilderbeast crystals are these two crystals that together can control any dragon." Mangis responds. 

"And anyone can use these crystals?" Gunnar asks. 

"Yep." Mangis responds. 

"Well then it's time to catch some kids." Gunnar laughs 

Chapter 9: A Trap for Two

Summary:

Gunnar and Magnis are on Hutsgalor what could go wrong

Notes:

I thought I was writing Leyla out of character but then I rewatched an episode of Rescue Riders and I wrote her the same as the show

Dak and Leyla were outside, near the eruptodon they're dragons next to them. This time with Dagur and Mala knowing where they were. Leyla was working in her dragon diary writing down facts about the eruptodon while Dak and Winger were looking around the area. 

“This place is way different from Hutsgalor.” Dak tells his twin

“Yeah it is.” Leyla responds.

“To start there’s a volcano.” Aggro attempts to joke.

“Second, they don’t hate dragons.” Cutter adds on. 

“Third, you guys have parents now.” Burole smiles. 

“We all knew that one.” Aggro responds. 

“Oh.” Burple mutters. 

“I appreciate the effort.” Leyla tells the purple dragon. 

“Yes.” Burple smiles 

Throk walks over to the group of them, “Your parents aren’t going to be back for a few more hours.” Throk tells them. 

“Okay,” Dak responds. 

“Thanks for telling us.” Leyla tells the man. 

“Is it weird having parents?” Burple asks. 

“A little bit.” Dak responds to the dragon. 

“Honestly I would think it’s weirder.” Aggro starts, “Like you lived your entire lives believing that your parents were dead, except they were alive the entire time looking for you two who they thought were dead.” 

“That hurts my head.” Burple complains. 

“This is a weird situation.” Cutter adds. 

“Definitely.” Dak responds 

“I miss home.” Burple tells them. 

“We know Burps.” Leyla responds to the purple dragon. 

“Do you think they’re okay?” Burple asks. 

“I’m sure they are Burps.” Dak responds. 

A terrible terror flew in landing on Burples back, Leyla grabbed the note from the dragons leg reading it. 

Dak and Leyla 

Hutsgalor is being attacked we need help now get here as soon as you can

-  Marena 

“What?” Leyla asks handing the note to Dak. 

“There’s no way Marena our Marena would send for help.” Dak tells his twin. 

“Maybe Duggard asked her too.” Burple suggests. 

“Either way we need to check it out.” Dak tells them. 

“How? There’s no way off the island.” Cutter responds. 

“And even if there was, your babysitting isn’t letting you leave.” Aggro tells them. 

“We could sneak off the island.” Winger suggests. 

“Yes.” Dak whispers, “Let’s go now before he notices.” 

Throk was still with the eruptodon his back facing the twins and their dragons, the group of the Rescue Riders snuck away while he was distracted. 

“We’ll be back before they even notice we're gone.” Leyla tells the group as they were running away from the town. 

“We’ll be in and out.” Dak agrees, “I doubt this will take long.” 

“Knowing Duggard it’s probably nothing.” Cutter laughs. 

“Let’s just get there.” Summer tells them, before they all take off from the island. 

---

 

Magnis and Gunnar were in the center of Hutsgalor, Gunnars hunters were taking people into their homes, 

“You’ll regret this Magnis!” Hannarh yells at the man. 

“You sided with dragon riders.” Magnis tells the people who were still outside, “Now you pay the price.” 

“So you team up with a mad man?” Duggard asks. 

“I wouldn’t say mad.” Gunnar laughs. 

“This town turned its back on me too many times.” Magnis tells them, 

“Just because we took in orphans?” Duggard yells at the man. 

“I wouldn’t call them orphans.” Gunnar laughs, “They’re parents are plenty alive.” 

“What are you talking about?” Hannarh asks. 

“You remember the missing children of the defenders of the wing?” Magnis asks. 

“Those children are dead, what are you talking about?” Duggard asks. 

“They are alive.” Gunnard responds, “And it’s Dak and Leyla, they are at their real home now.” 

“You don’t mean anything to them now.” Magnis asks. 

“That’s not possible!” Finn yells, “This is their home, it always will be!” 

Gunnar turns to the blonde boy, walking towards him, “You really think that?” 

“All of us do!” Hannar yells, “They may know their parents now but Hutsgalor will always be their home and will always stand with them” 

Gunnar laughs, turning to his men, “Then leave those twins with nothing to come back to.” 

“What?” Magnis asks the man, who started ordering his people to attack the city. 

“You heard me.” Gunnar responds, “You just said you don’t care about this town so this shouldn't be a problem.” 

“It’s not.” Magnis responds, “It was just unexpected.” 

“Good.” Gunnar replies, 

---

 

The Rescue Riders were racing back to Hutsgalor, Winger was in front of them all with Summer close behind. 

“What do you think is wrong?” Dak asks his twin. 

“I don’t know.” Leyla responds. 

“It’s probably something with Magnis.” Cutter cuts in. 

“That’s probably it.” Aggro laughs.

The group of them were reaching the island when Winger stops suddenly, making Cutter crash into him. 

“What the heck?” Cutter asks, “Why did we stop?” 

“I don’t think it was because of Magnis.” Winger starts. 

“Why?” Aggro asks. 

“Because he doesn’t have an army.” Summer tells them, looking into Hutgalor’s habor which was filled with unfamiliar ships 

“What?” Cutter yells, “Then who's attacking Hutsgalor?” 

Dak takes a closer look at the sails on the ships, “Ley are those sails familiar?” 

The red-haired girl looked towards the ship's sails, “Those are Gunnar ships!” Leyla yells towards his twin. 

“That’s what I thought.” Dak responds. 

“Whose Gunnar?” Burple asks. 

“He’s the one who made Dak and Leyla train dragons for him.” Aggro explains. 

“Ooooh.” Burple replies. 

“You still don’t remember, do you?” Cutter asks the purple dragon. 

“Nope.” Burple replies. 

“We need to stop him.” Dak tells his twin. 

“I know.” Leyla responds, the red head looks out into the town which had more people than it usually did. “Okay, here's the plan.” 

---

 

Dagur and Mala had returned to the Defenders of the Wing after being at the Northern Markets for multiple hours. Both of the rulers of the island dismounted Sluether who was now lying down near the eruptodon, Throk was looking around for something and the twins were nowhere to be seen. 

“Hello Throk.” Mala starts. 

“What are you looking for?” Dagur asks. 

“The twins are gone.” Throk responds, “And their dragon’s are gone too.” 

“What?” Mala asks. 

“One second they were here and the next they were.” Throk tells them, “I have no clue where they went.” 

“They must have left something showing where they were going.” Mala tells the man. 

“Have you looked?” Dagur asks the man. 

“No, not yet.” Throk responds. 

“Then let’s look now.” Mala responds. 

The three adults walk over to where the twins used to be, Throk grabs the paper that was on the ground, throwing it to the king of the island. Dagur reads over the paper before handing it to his wife, who also read it over. 

“They went back to Hutsgalor” Mala tells Throk. 

“I think they’re going to come back, but I think we need to make sure they’re okay.” Dagur adds. 

“I agree.” Mala responds. 

“I’ll stay here, just in case they come back.” Throk tells them. 

“That sounds good.” Dagur tells the man, “We better get going.” 

Mala and Dagur walk back over to Sluether who was now getting up, not happy about it,“You gotta be kidding me.” Sluether tells the riders as they climb aboard. 

“I wonder what he said.” Dagur tells his wife. 

“I have no clue.” Mala responds. 

“The twins make understanding dragons so easy.” Dagur tells his wife as they take off from the island. 

“They were raised to understand dragons.” Mala responds. 

“Which seems so impossible now that I think about it.” Dagur responds. 

“Everything’s impossible when you think about it.” Sluether tells them. 

“That sums up our kids.” Mala laughs. 

“Yep.” Dagur agrees. 

---

 

Gunnar was watching as his men took apart the town of Hutsgalor, the chief was taken to one of the ships as well as many others. Most of the remaining people of Hutsgalor were hiding in their homes watching as the men tore apart their town. Magnis was watching the mess from the stage in front of the great hall, he was happy this town never respected him so why should he care that it was gone. 

While the older men were distracted they didn’t see the Rescue Riders landing in the forest far from the town, 

“Ley, are you sure about this?” Dak starts. 

“I’m with Dak, remember last time we asked them for help?” Cutter asks the girl. 

“The slinkwings are the only chance we have.” Leyla responds, as she leads the group through the woods, “Once we explain the situation.” 

“And why do you think they’re going to help?” Burple asks. 

“Because if they don’t they’ll end up in Gunnar’s cages.” Leyla responds. 

“She has a good point.” Winger tells the group. 

“Wait, if we fail does that mean, we will end up in Gunnar’s cages?” Burple asks. 

“No.” Aggro responds, “Hopefully we won’t fail, or else that will happen.” 

“Aggro!” Dak yells at the dragon. 

“Dak!” Aggro yells back, “Are you trying to get us caught?” 

“Both of you quit!” Leyla yells just loud enough for the group to hear.

“She started it!” Dak responds.

“No I didn’t!” Aggro yells back. 

“Are you trying to get us caught?” Dak asks the fire dragon. 

“Shut up!” Aggro yells. 

“All of you shut up!” Winger yells. 

“Rude.” Burple mutters. 

“You guys are awfully loud.” Lurke tells them. 

“What are you doing here?” Vizza asks. 

“We need your help.” Dak starts. 

“No.” Lurke tells them, “Last time we got kicked off an island.” 

“You took over an island that wasn’t yours.” Dak argues. 

“So did you.” Lurke responds. 

“When did I-” Dak starts. 

“Quit it both of you.” Leyla tells them, “Either you help us or you end up in cages.” 

“What cages?” Vizza asks. 

“The cages on the ships filling the harbor.” Leyla responds, “So unless you want to be taken and sold you should help us.”

“Dang Ley.’ Cutter mutters. 

“Fine, we'll help.” Lurke responds, “What’s your plan?”

---

 

Dak, Leyla and their dragon were sneaking back towards the great hall while the others flew to the docks, the twins reached the back of the great hall, splitting up sneaking around it. The Sinkewings were invisible in the air waiting for their signal to start firing. Magnis was still on the stage watching as Gunnar and his men ripped apart the town, when he heard a loud sharp whistle, at the sound the Slinkwings became visible starting to fire on the men. Dak and Leyla came out from behind the great hall, flying up to where the slinkwings were. 

“What now?” Lurke asks them looking down at the town, which had Gunnar’s men now covered in Slinkwing goo. 

“Just keep doing what you are doing.” Leyla responds. 

Dak and Winger were down lower than them, firing at the hunters coming off the ships. The other Rescue Riders were sinking ships that were further out from the docks, lucky Elbone wasn’t at the docks so he wasn’t getting in trouble. Gunnar’s men started retreating from the city, Magnis was with them. 

Gunnar looked around at the still destroyed and more empty city before walking to his ships and leaving the island. Only one of Gunnar’ ships was still close enough to Hutsgalor, said ship was firing arrows at the dragons flying over it. The arrows weren’t normal ones but dragon roots, and the Rescue Riders knew that. An arrow was fired towards the swiftwing in the sky, Dak saw the arrow and used his leg to block it. 

“Shit!” Dak yell in pain. 

“Why would you do that?” Winger asks his brother flying down towards the town which was now empty. 

“It was dragon root.” Dak replies. 

“And that’s your reason to get shot?” Cutter asks the boy. 

“Basically.” Dak replies. 

“You’re an idiot.” Aggro tells the boy. 

The rescue riders land in the empty city, Dak was leaning against Winger watching as his twin was looking around the city. 

“Duggard!” Leyla yells, looking over to Dak who was looking around for anyone. 

“Where is everyone?” Dak asks. 

“Hopefully in their homes.” Leyla replies, “Finn!” 

“Finngard!” Dak yells as well. 

“I don’t know Ley.” Cutter starts, “People would’ve started coming out by now.” 

“They’re gone.” One of Gunnar’s hunters laughs. 

The Rescue Riders turn to the man who was stuck to the ground, “What are you talking about?” Dak asks. 

“Gunnar took most of the city, he said leave you with nothing to come back to.” The hunter laughs, “Too bad your home is gone.” 

Cutter fires one of his spikes at the man which nearly hits his head, which quickly shuts him up. 

“Everyone is gone?” Burple asks. 

“There’s got to be some people left.” Dak tells the group. 

“Where?” Leyla asks, “Hutsgalor runs out when they're safe, they always do.” 

“I don’t know Ley.’ Dak replies. 

The Rescue Riders, minus Dak, start looking around. Dak was told to sit down and not move until someone could look at his wound. The group of them knock on people’s doors, look in the forest to see if people ran out there. They did find some people who hid in their homes, but most of the town was still gone including Duggard. The Rescue Riders helped the people who were still in the town, locking the hunters who attacked away. After everything was done the group of them were standing in the center of the town. 

“What now?” Dak asks his twin. 

Leyla doesn’t get a chance to answer before being interrupted, “Dak, Leyla!” Dagur yells landing Sluether near them. Both of the adults run over to the defeated kids, Mala notices Dak leg and goes to help him get it patched up. Leyla walked away from the group of them, Dagur was following her. 

“This is my fault.” Leyla tells Dagur, “I should’ve known it wasn’t from Marena but I didn’t and now the town is destroyed, people have been taken, and Dak got hurt because of me.” 

“Leyla.” Dagur starts calmly, kneeling down to his daughter's level, “It’s not your fault it could've happened to anybody.” 

“Not to me!” Leyla yells, “I know these things, I know Marena she would never call for help, even if she was asked too!” 

“Leyla.” Dagur starts again this time more sternly, “It’s not your fault-.” 

“It is!” Leyla yells again, “And nothing you say is going to change that, I screw up horribly if I had thought of a better plan or told someone about the terror mail this would not have happened.” 

“Leyla.” Dagur starts for the third time, “Okay there’s nothing I can say to change your mind, but what about him.” Dagur tells her pointing at Finn who was watching the conversation. Leyla turned to face the blonde boy, who was staring at her. 

“Finn?” Leyla asks, before the boy comes running at her.

Leyla was expecting Finn to be mad at her about what happened which she thought he rightfully should be but Finngard instead hugged the older girl, resting his chin on her shoulder. 

“It’s not your fault, if anyone it’s Magnis’s fault he’s the one who teamed up with that insane man.” Finn tells her, “None of Hutsgalor would ever blame you for what happened, Okay?” 

“Okay Finny.” Leyla responds, Finn pulls out of the hug looking at Leyla before running to Dak. 

Leyla turns to the man behind her, “So you believe me now?” Dagur asks. 

“Not really, but for Finn I will.” Leyla responds. 

“Good, Now are you okay?” Dagur asks, Leyla had been too focused on the village and Dak for either of her parents to make sure she wasn’t injured as well. 

“I’m fine.” Leyla responds, “I’m going to check on Dak.” 

Leyla turns to where her brother was now talking with Finn, walking towards him with Dagur close behind her. 

“Hey Ley.” Dak starts. 

“Hey Dak.” Leyla responds. 

“So what now?” Finn asks them. 

“I don’t know Finny.” Leyla replies. 

“We need to get everyone back.” Dak tells her. 

“We all know that, but for now we need more help.” Mala cuts in. 

“I know.” Leyla mutters, “But who will help?” 

“Hopefully the dragon riders will.” Dagur replies, “Is everyone here okay with us going back to defenders of the wing?” 

“I think so.” Dak replies.

“What about Finn?” Cutter starts, “I mean his mom was taken during the attack.”

“He has a point.” Summer starts. 

“What are they saying?” Finn asks. 

“They’re asking where you’ll go.” Dak replies. 

“Oh.” Finn tells them, “can I go with you? My mom trust you guys with everything she’d be fine with it.” 

The twins look towards their parents who were watching the kids, “I don’t see a problem with it.” Mala tells them. 

“Great.” Leyla replies, turning back to Finn, “They have a really cool dragon there.” 

“They do?” Finn asks, “What dragon?” 

“It’s called an eruptadon.” Leyla tells him, “I’ll tell you about it on the way.” 

“Okay,” Finn smiles. 

“We better get going.” Mala tells them. 

Sluether who was laying down again looks up at them annoyed, “Really I just layed down!” Sluether tells them.

“What did he say?” Dagur asks. 

“Something about just lying down.” Dak replies.

“You’ll be able to sleep once we get back.” Dagur tells the dragon, “We better get going before it gets too late.” 

“Okay, let’s go.” Mala replies. 

The group of them climbed aboard their dragons, Finn was riding Aggro, while the rest of them were riding their dragons. They take off from the mostly empty island of Hutsgalor, flying towards the Defenders of the Wing. 

---

Gunnar and Magnis were standing on the middle of one of the many ships sailing away from the island, “You didn’t even get the twins.” Magnis tells the man.
“I’m aware of that.” Gunnar replies, “I have another plan.” 

“Care to share said plan?” Magnis asks. 

“You’ll find out in due time,” Gunnar replies, “For now, I’m going to handle my hunters.” 

Gunnar walks away from the man, leaving Magnis alone with his thoughts. 

“That man is insane.” Magnis mutters to himself before following the man. Gunnar’s ships continued sailing towards the camp, with the people of Hutsgalor in its hold.

Chapter 10: Siblings at Crossroads

Summary:

Dak and Dagur go to Hutgalor

Notes:

Finn is now the baby of the family, I love writing older sister Leyla so much

It had been a few weeks since Hutsgalor was attacked, Mala and Dagur had people sent to help rebuild the city and help the people. Mala’s reasoning for it was they helped our family now we help theres, Dagur had been helping with the rebuilding as well, the twins often joined their father when he journeyed to Hutsgalor, Finn on other hand didn’t. When they left Finn often stayed behind with Mala who gladly accepted his presents, Mala had grown to love the blonde child as he reminded her of the twins when they were younger and to her that memory was amazing to have around. Finn was still settling into living on Defenders of the Wing, his nightmare he has often found himself climbing into bed with one of the twins. Neither of them were bothered by Finn joining them most nights, they knew what having nightmares so bad that you couldn’t sleep felt like. 

The sun had started rising over the island, Finn unsurprisingly had gone to one of the twins' beds after he had a nightmare. Finn was sound asleep next to the redhead girl, who was awake. Leyla was leaning her head against the wall, Finn was using her shoulder as a pillow as he usually did. Dak had woken up earlier than both of them to go to Hutsgalor with Dagur. Leyla would’ve joined them, but after Finn’s latest nightmare she didn’t want to. 

Leyla was reading a book which was on her bedside table, when Mala walked in. “Throk was wondering if you two wanted to help him with something.” Mala tells them. 

“Yes!” Finn yells sitting up. 

“How long have you been awake?” Leyla asks the boy. 

“A few minutes, I was listening to you read.” Finn tells her. 

“Okay,” Leyla responds, “Let’s go.” 

“Race you!” Finn yells running out of the room. 

“Oh come on!” Leyla yells chasing the boy. 

Mala laughs at the two of them following them to where Throk was, Throk was feeding the eruptodon waiting for the two kids. 

“Good morning Throk!” Finn yells. 

“Good morning Finngard.” Throk replies. 

“So, what do you need help with?” Leyla asks the man. 

“I need help, getting lumber and with the eruptodon.” Throk replies. 

“Okay,” Finn smiles. 

“Let’s get started.” Leyla tells them both. 

---

Dagur and Dak were flying to Hutsgalor, the island was about a 4-hour flight from the defenders of the wing which is why they left so early.

“I wish Ley came with us.” Dak groans leaning back on his staddle. 

“I know.” Dagur replies, looking at his son who dramatically sighed again, “We'll be back tomorrow morning.” 

“I knew that.” Dak responds, “How much longer?” 

“Not very long.” Dagur replies, Dak again dramatically sighed, 

“This is so boring.” Dak tells him. 

“You’ve told me.” Dagur chuckles, “We should be there before midday.” 

“Thank Thor.” Dak sighs. 

Dagur and Dak land in the middle of Hutsgalor, the village had started to look like a town again thanks to Mala and Dagur’s help. Elbone was one of the people who were left behind, so even though he hated fishing he hadn’t tried changing his job again so the village would have food. Elbone was working at his booth when the two of them showed up. Dak jumped off Winger running towards the booth. 

“Hi Elbone!” Dak yells. 

“Hey, Dak.” Elbone replies, tiredly.  

“How is everyone?” Dak asks the older man. 

“People are trying,” Elbone replies, “But without Duggard or Hannarh things have been more difficult, people have been fighting for resources like crazy.” 

“Is Axel still at Magnus's place?” Dak asks. 

“Yes, he comes into town frequently actually, he’s been helping people share resources, stopping fights, and even is sharing metal from Magnus stash.” Elbone replies. 

“Really?” Dak asks.

“You don’t have to sound so surprised.” Axel cuts in, walking up to Elbone’s booth holding a fishing pole, “Fixed your fishing pole it should last longer now.” 

“Thanks Axel.” Elbone responds, taking the fishing pole and tucking it away, “You need anything?” 

“No, but thank you Elbone.” Axel replies, walking away. 

Dak said a quick goodbye to Elbone running after the blonde teen, “Axel!” Dak yells. 

Axel stops turning to face the red head, “Yes Dak?” 

“Is everything Elbone said true?” Dak asks. 

“Yep,” Axel replies, “I usually come into town when I know you and Leyla aren’t here but Elbone needed his fishing pole.” 

“That was really nice of you.” Dak responds. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Axel replies, “I heard Finn is staying with you guys, is he okay?” 

“He misses his mom, but other than that he’s fine.” Dak replies. 

“Hopefully w-you guys can get the people of Hutsgalor back.” Axel responds, walking away before turning back, “I left something in the Roost for you and Leyla.” 

“You did?” Dak asks, confused. 

“Take it as a thank you for both of you guys saving my life.” Axel responds, walking back towards his uncle’s home, turning back towards the red head boy again, “If you guys need anything you know where to find me.” 

Dak watched as the teen left the town, not getting a chance to react properly before he heard someone call his voice. 

“Dak!” 

Dak turned to see Dagur who was still talking with Elbone and someone else, Marena was standing with a smirk on her face looking at the boy. 

“Marena!” Dak yells running towards the women. 

“You didn’t think I’d go easily, did you?” Marena asks. 

“No.” Dak replies, before hugging the older woman. Marena was surprised at the sudden contact, but she did hug the boy back, “I’m glad you okay.” 

Marena pulls from the hug when she sees Dagur walking towards them, “You must be Dak and Leyla’s father.” Marena starts. 

“That I am.” Dagur replies, reaching his hand out, “Dagur.” 

Marena shakes the man's hand, “Marena.” 

“Pleasure to meet you.” Dagur tells her. 

“Pleasure to meet you as well,” Marena responds, “But I have news.” 

“What is it?” Dak asks. 

“I know where Gunnar and Magnus are hiding the people of Hutsgalor.” Marena responds. 

“What!” Dak yells, “We need to go now!” 

“That is unwise.” Marena tells the boy, “He has hundreds of people watching them, thousands of ships, it’s impossible to get in or out.” 

“Where did he get all the hunters?” Dagur asks. 

“I don’t know but they are definitely no friends of dragons.” Marena tells them, “Dragons are locking in cages, getting shot down, in chains.”
“We need to get help from the other dragon riders.” Dagur tells the two of them. 

“So, we can’t save them now?” Dak asks. 

“We need a plan.” Dagur replies, “And that is final so no sneaking off.” 

“Fine.” Dak mutters, turning to Marena again, “Are you coming with us?” 

“No, someone has to make sure Hutsgalor doesn’t fall apart.” Marena replies. 

“I want to go.” Axel cuts in walking towards them, “My uncle is the reason this happened, I want to help.” 

“Are you sure?” Dak asks the teen. 

“Yes.” Axel replies. 

“We can get what we need from the Roost before flying home.” Dak tells Dagur. 

“Good idea.’ Dagur replies, Dak jumps on Winger flying towards the roost leaving the three alone.

 Axel turns to Dagur who was watching Dak, “So are you actually their father?” Axel asks. 

“Yes.” Dagur replies.

“If you want to know any embarrassing stories about them,” Axel starts, “I’ll gladly tell you.” 

“I have good stories too!” Elbone yells from his booth. 

“We can have fun telling stories about the twins once we get the rest of the island back.” Marena tells them. 

Dak lands next to them, holding both of the weapons Axel fixed for them, “Okay, now we can go.” Dak tells them. 

Axel climbs on the back of Winger with Dak who was still holding the weapons that were wrapped in a cloth, Dagur climbs on Sluether. The three of them took off from the island flying towards Defenders of the Wing, Dak looked down at the wrapped weapons before looking back at Axel how nods. 

The red head unwraps the weapons, Leyla’s ax was sitting on top, it was newly sharpened with a new handle that was wrapped in dark green leather. 

“Where did you get the stuff for this?” Dak asks, looking at his twins newly repaired ax. 

“Magnus thought he didn’t need it for where he is.” Axel replies, Dak laughs at the responds grabbing the other weapons. Dak’s throwing knives had seen better days, based on the fact Dak stole them from a hunter who attacked them. But now they looked brand new, the rust on the knives was gone, it was sharped and had a new handle as well. 

“Thank you, Axel.” Dak tells the blonde teen. 

“It was no problem.” Axel replies. Dak puts the weapons back in the cloth, wrapping it back up, “How long until we reach the island?” 

“We probably won’t be there until sunrise.” Dagur replies. 

“Just great.” Axel mutters, “Spending that long with Dak.” 

“Hey.” Dak says offended, “I’m great company just ask dad.” 

“Oh.” Axel tells him, “Didn’t think I’d hear that.” 

“What?” Dak asks. 

“You called your father, Dad.” Axel replies.

“No, I didn’t.” Dak replies. 

“Yeah, you did.” Axel responds. 

“Did I?” Dak asks himself. 

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t think he heard.” Axel tells the red head. 

“Let’s keep that between us for now.” Dak tells the blonde. 

“Sure.” Axel responds. 

---

 

Leyla and Finn had been helping Throk throughout the entire day, as the day went on Leyla was 99% sure Throk was trying to distract Finn and make him happy. Which isn’t a bad thing, the two Rescue Riders were sitting next to Eruptdon. The sun was setting over the island, Finn was resting his head on Leyla's shoulder with his legs kicked up on the bench. Leyla was attempting to talk with Finn, but he wasn’t replying much due to being almost asleep. 

“He’s out.” Mala laughs standing next to Leyla.

“Definitely.” Leyla responds, looking at the boy who was most definitely asleep. 

“How are we getting him home?” Mala asks. 

“I can carry him; I’ve done it before.” Leyla replies. 

“Then we better get going before it gets any colder.” Mala responds. 

“Probably a good idea.” Leyla tells her, the redhead gets up from the bench much to the displeasure of the boy.

“Ley.” Finn whined looking at her. 

“Finn we got to get home.” Leyla replies. 

“Can I have a piggyback ride?” Finn asks. 

“Sure.” Leyla laughs, Finn stands up on the bench getting on the girls back. 

“Onward.” Finn laughs, resting his head on Leyla’s shoulder. 

“Yep.” Leyla laughs. 

The three of them walk towards their home, Finn was out when they walked through the door. Leyla walked to the room the three of them shared, setting Finn down on Dak’s bed. Finn rolled over facing the wall, Leyla through a blanket over the boy before going to her own bed. 

---

Gunnar and Magnus were standing on one of the ships sailing south towards an island surrounded by ships, “So what’s on this island again?” Magnus asks. 

“The one who is in charge of the operation.” Gunnar replies. 

“I thought you were in charge.” Magnus responds.

“I was in charge of finding the twins, but my brother is in charge of everything else.” Gunnar tells the man.

“And who is your brother?” Magnus asks. 

“Drago.” Gunnar responds. 

“Who?” Magnus asks. 

“Drago Bludfist.” Gunnar clarifies. 

“Not ringing a bell.” Magnus tells him. 

“Never mind,” Gunnar sighs, “When my brother was defeated by the dragon riders of Berk he came home, wanting revenge on them and I happened to know about the twins being able to talk to the dragons, so we put a bounty out on them.” 

“I thought that was because of who their parents were?” Magnus replies. 

“No, we put it on them for their abilities, their parents being discovered just happened neither me or my brother had thought about it when we made the bounty, so when people thought the bounty was for them being missing children of Dagur the Deranged and Queen Mala we ran with it, the less people to know about this the better,” Gunnar responds

The boat reaches the dock, Gunnar walks off followed by Magnis closely behind. 

“Brother.” Drago greets, “Did you get those twins?” 

“No, but I've got something better out.” Gunnar replies. 

“What?” Drago asks. 

“Those twins know where to find crystals that can control dragons,” Gunnar replies before pointing at Magnus, “He even seen it himself.” 

Drago looked over at Magnus with an unimpressed expression, “Is this true?” 

“Yes.” Magnus replies. 

“And brother, we have the perfect bait to reel them in.” Gunnar laughs. 

“What?” Drago asks. 

“Their people.” Gunnar laughs.

“Perfect.” Drago responds, turning to his men, “Unload the ships now!” Turning back to his brother, “Now tell me more about these crystals.” 

Gunnar pushes Magnus forward, “Gladly.” Magnus responds.

Notes:

I wrote the ending on two hours of sleep so I don't know how to feel about it

Chapter 11: Lore Stuff

Summary:

Head Cannons that go with the story and some lore for Gunnar and Drago

Notes:

Felt like I needed to explain Gunnar and Drago more

Gunnar and Drago are brothers, 

Drago is very much older then Gunnar 

Drago goes home at the end of httyd 

Gunnar goes to Hutsgalor 8 years later to find the Rescue Riders

After Drago’s loss in httyd 2 he went back to his old home met by Gunnar who was waiting for him. Gunnar heard about his brother’s loss and mainly was there to rub it in. In the end Gunnar decided to help his older brother 

Drago and Gunnar spent many years planning their new plan, after they heard a story of the Rescue Riders Gunnar went to Hutsgalor to see if it was true. Gunnar was there during the sheep festival, leaving right after the event ended so no one knew he was there. 

Gunnar was the one to make the wanted posters for the twins not knowing about their parents

Dak and Leyla have unnaturally high pain tolerances

Axel knows how to give some medical care, setting breaks, fixing dislocated limbs, giving someone or himself stitches if needed, (Cause his family never helped him so he learned on his own)

Dak taught Finn how to defend himself 

Leyla has Aquaphobia which is a fear of drowning, (After she almost did when she was little, Cannon in the how I met Summer ep) 

Dak is terrified of spiders and makes Leyla take them out for him. 

Leyla can’t listen when she's working, and she’ll zone out when Shes planning something 

Dak isn’t allowed to cook ever because he will either burn the kitchen down or poison someone or both 

Dak is either the first one up or the last one up and there is no in between 

When the twins were little Snotlout taught them how to swear accidentally 

Mala almost killed him over it

Ruff and Tuff were never allowed alone with the twins

If you say something wrong in front of Leyla, she will automatically correct you, 

she's corrected all of the dragon riders at least once 

Valka has never been corrected by her and never will 

Dak and Leyla never get sick, like the whole village could get sick and they’d be just fine

Axel treats the others like his little siblings 

Leyla and Axel are sassy as f when people annoy them 

Dak has their mother's anger while Leyla has their fathers 

Leyla makes little braids in the other Rescue Riders hair (Like how Astrid did in Hiccups), mainly Dak and Finn but Axel has a few braids made by her as well 

Some Vikings see Dak and Leyla abilities as gifts from the gods 

Neither of the twins know how to feel about it

Finn finds comfort in all of the older Rescue Riders

Dagur sees a bit of himself in Axel 

Throk felt like the twins getting taken was his fault for the first few years 

Valka knows about the twins when they were missing 

Valka has met the other islands from Rtte 

 

Chapter 12: Building Trust from Ruins

Summary:

Axel on Defenders of the Wing Island

Notes:

This took way too long to write

The next morning, Leyla was woken up by Finn but not because he had a nightmare but because Dak had returned.

Leyla eventually got out of her bed after the young blonde asked her too multiple times, Mala was already outside meeting with them. Finn and Leyla walked outside to meet them as well, being met with Dak running towards them holding something. 

“Hi Ley, Finn.” Dak greets. 

“Hi Dak.” Leyla sighs.

“What’s that?” Finn asks, pointing at the cloth in his hand. 

“Oh this.” Dak says handing it to his twin who was still confused, “Is from Axel.” 

“Axel?” Leyla asks, surprised. 

“You don’t have to sound surprised.” Axel cuts in walking towards them. 

“Axel, what are you doing here?” Leyla asks the teen, 

“My uncle teamed up with a mad man,” Axel responds, “and I wanted to help stop him.”

“Are you going to unwrap it?” Finn asks, looking at what was in the girl's hands. 

Leyla sighs, unwrapping the cloth from what it was covering. Leyla pulled her ax out looking at it, noticing it was newly repaired. 

“You fixed it?” Leyla asks the teen. 

“Yeah,” Axel replies, “I saw that the handle started splitting after Magnus’s latest problem.” 

“Yeah, my patience started breaking then too.” Leyla attempts to joke. 

“You still had patience?” Axel asks, “I thought Dak used it all.” 

“Hey!” Dak interrupts, “We were just bullying Magnus why did I get added into the conversation.” 

“To be fair, I probably used most of Ley’s patience as well.” Finn adds on. 

“Okay, we’ve all stolen most of Ley’s patience.” Dak responds. 

“I didn-.” Axel starts before cutting himself off, remembering the spring festival, “Okay we all did.” 

“Now that we have that covered.” Leyla starts, turning to the blonde teen, “Want to see the rest of the island?” 

“Yes.” Axel replies, “Dak’s been talking about it the entire ride.” 

“It’s not my fault this island is awesome.” Dak interrupts. 

“We should start with the eruptodon.” Finn tells them. 

“Yes, let’s go!” Dak yells racing off. 

“Dak!” Finn yells running after the boy. 

Axel turns to Leyla who was about to start running after the two boys, 

“Are you two always so competitive?” Axel asks. 

“Yeah pretty much.” Leyla laughs, running after the two boys who were farther in front of them. Axel sighs before running after the three others 

Mala and Dagur watched as the kids ran away before starting to talk.

“What happened for you both to be home so early?” Mala asks her husband. 

“We’ve been told where the people of Hutsgalor are.” Dagur replies. 

“Seriously?” Mala asks, looking at Dagur who nods, “How can you trust whoever told you this?” 

“Dak knew her.” Dagur replies, “he basically ran to hug her when he saw her.” 

“Are we sure she isn’t with them?” Mala asks. 

“I doubt she is,” Dagur replies, “Dak seems to trust her, I met her while I was in Hutsgalor and she doesn't seem like someone to betray the twins.” 

“Where is she now?” Mala asks. 

“Stayed on Hutsgalor to help the people of the island.” Dagur replies. 

“Okay where did she say the people of Hutsgalor are?” Mala asks. 

“She said she saw them near change-Wing Island.” Dagur replies, “But they’re still moving, slowly but surely.” 

“There’s no way we can save them without help.” Mala tells her husband. 

“I know.” Dagur sighs, “We need help from the other dragon riders.” 

“We need to go to New Berk as soon as possible.” Mala tells him. 

“We can terror mail, Hiccup about it and leave tomorrow.” Dagur suggests. 

“That’s the best idea we have.” Mala sighs.

“Hopefully, Hiccup and the others will help.” Dagur mutters. 

“Let’s catch up with the kids.” Mala tells her husband

---

Dak had finished giving Axel a tour of the island, well technically Leyla and Finn did more work during said tour, but Dak believes it was him.

So, the four of them were sitting in the arena near the eruption, Mala, Throk, and Dagur were talking near them.  

“So, what’s having loving parents like?” Axel asks the twins in a joking manner. 

“You don’t know?” Dak asks, resulting in Leyla smacking the back of her twin's head. 

“He had Magnus as a parental figure, I wouldn’t expect much.” Leyla tells Dak, “I don’t think Magnus can even take care of himself.” 

“Good point.” Dak responds. 

“You guys should just share your parents with Axel.” Finn cuts in. 

“Yeah, sharing is caring.” Axel cuts in laughing. 

“That doesn’t work with people.” Cutter cuts in from where he and the other dragons were on the ground. 

“Says who?” Dak asks the dragon, in a joking manner. 

“What did he say?” Axel asks Leyla. 

“Cutter said it doesn’t work with people.” Leyla responds. 

“No, I agree with Dak for once.” Axel tells the dragon, “Says who?”

Cutter rolls his eyes and turns away from the kids. 

“Oh wait, I forgot to tell you.” Dak says abruptly, “Marena escaped.” 

“She was taken?” Finn asks, confused. 

“Yeah, she was.” Dak replies. 

“No way she didn’t get taken on purpose.” Leyla responds, looking at her twin who was now as confused as the younger blonde was. “We know Marena, no way she’d go down easily.” 

“She definitely had a plan or something.” Axel adds. 

“Anyways how’d you know she escaped?” Finn asks. 

“She came to Hutsgalor.” Dak replies, “And she knows where stupid head Gunnar took everyone.” 

“We know where my mom is?” Finn asks the older ones of the group. 

“Yeah Finn, we do.” Axel tells the boy. 

Finn jumps up from where he was sitting, 

“When are we going to go save her?” Finn asks. 

“It’s not that simple, Finn.” Dak sighs, “Everyone is heavily guarded from what Marena saw.” 

“But can we save her?” Finn asks, hopefully. 

“We’re working on it.” Dak tells him. 

Finn’s face drops as the red head responds, dropping back down to where he was sitting bringing his knees up to his chest. 

“I miss her.” Finn says, which was muffled in his knees. 

The three older Rescue Riders look at each other, Dak walked over to the boy wrapping his arm around the blondes shoulder’s 

“I promise we’ll get her back.” Dak tells him. 

Finn looks up at the red head, before wrapping his arms around Dak pulling him into a hug. 

“Okay.” Finn mutters towards the boy. 

“Now what do you want to do?” Dak asks the boy pulling out of the hug. 

“Can we play a game?” Finn asks, looking up at the two other Rescue Riders standing in front of him. 

“Any game.” Leyla replies. 

“Okay.” Finn smiles, 

Dak stands up next to the others while Finn stands on the bench, “And can I have a piggyback ride?” 

“Yeah.” Dak laughs, turning so the boy could jump on, “Where to first?”

---

New Berk 

A terrible terror flew towards the island of New Berk, the island had dragons on it but not as many as before.

Most of the dragons now lived in the hidden world, but dragons with a rider stayed on berk.

The small dragon flew towards the house on top of one of the many hills covering the island, flying through the city getting the attention of passing Vikings who paid no mind to the dragon. 

The terrible terror flew through one of the open windows, landing on the top of the fireplace dropping the note before flying off. 

“Dad!” One of the children in the living room yells, “There is a terror mail here for you!”

Notes:

Honestly really wish this chapter was longer but it's fine

Also, at this point I'm thinking Axel was going to leave his uncle for a while and started being nicer to the RR before the invents of the beginning of the fic

Chapter 13: The Gathering

Summary:

Family meetings

Notes:

Zephyr is 9 while Nuffink is 7

Based Nuffink's personality on my baby cousin's mainly because I didn't remember half of his original one

Hiccup walked out of his workshop seeing his daughter holding the terror mail that was meant for him. Zephyr held up the note to her father, who took it from her. 

“It’s from Dagur.” Hiccup tells his daughter, whose face lit up at the name. 

“Uncle Dagur!” Nuffink yells running into the room, standing beside his sister. 

Hiccup laughs at his son's reaction, reading the rest of the note. 

“What does it say?” Zephyr asks her father. 

Hiccup doesn’t respond so Nuffink jumps on one of the chairs to be able to look over his father’s shoulder. The boy looks at the letter his father was holding, attempting to read it. 

But the blonde gave up after his father moved the paper, 

“Dad.” Nuffink whines. 

“Just tell us.” Zephyr insists. 

Hiccup sighs, looking at his kids who were both looking at him still. 

“How would you too like to finally meet your cousins?” 

---

Defenders of the wing 

The Rescue Riders had finished playing hide and seek which was the game requested by Finn. Unsurprisingly Finn also won every game they played while Dak lost most. 

“You guys cheated!” Dak accuses the other player of the game. 

“We didn’t cheat Dak,” Axel sighs, sitting down on one of the benches near them. 

“You just didn’t hide well.” Leyla tells him. 

“No you cheated.” Dak argues. 

“Whatever you think.” Axel tells the boy, “Thor you two are competitive.” 

“Speaking of competition,” Finn starts, “Remember when Ley got so competitive with Axel that they broke the robo-dragons?” 

“I did not know Ley could get that competitive.” Axel cuts in. 

“Neither did I.” Finn responds, “But it was sorta funny.” 

“That was before I got sent out into the sea.” Axel cuts in again. 

“Hey, I saved you.” Leyla responds. 

“You had too, it was partially your fault.” Axel responds. 

“Hey!” Leyla yells, “I admitted that already no need to bring it up.” 

“Bring what up?” Dagur asks, he was standing next to the bench Axel was sitting on. 

“How competitive Ley is.” Finn replies. 

“How is Leyla competitive?” Mala asks from beside her husband. 

“Leyla raced a machine because it tried to get rid of the Rescue Riders.” Axel tells them. 

“Which then leads to the same machine breaking and going crazy.” Finn adds on. 

“Who built this?” Dagur asks. 

“Mangus.” Axel replies. 

“He really hated us.” Dak laughs. 

“He still hates us.” Leyla responds. 

“You have a point.” Dak sighs. 

“He hated you guys the first day you came.” Finn cuts in. 

“Yeah he did.” Leyla laughs. 

“What did you guys do?” Mala asks. 

“Well first he was trying to be competitive with us and lost.” Leyla starts. “Then he framed us, and got us to leave the island because of it, and then one of his machines went haywire,” 

“When do they not?” Finn cuts in. 

“Which then sent wood flying into the town destroying it.” Leyla continues, “Making us having to break his machine to stop it.” 

“Which happened a lot.” Dak cuts in. 

“And he hated us ever sense.” Leyla finishes. 

“And that’s not even including Hooganboo, spring festival, Odinyule, and a lot more.” Finn adds. 

“On another note.” Mala starts changing the conversation, “We are going to go to New Berk soon.” 

“New Berk?” Finn asks. 

“An island with dragon riders who are going to help bring the people of Hutsgalor back.” Dagur explains. 

“Who are the dragon riders?” Axel asks. 

“Other people who ride dragons.” Dak attempts to explain. 

“Really?” Axel asks sarcastically. 

“I didn’t need the sarcasm, Axe.” Dak tells him

“Felt like you did.” Axel responds. 

“Can you both stop?” Leyla asks, interrupting the two's conversation. 

“I guess.” Dak mutters. 

“I swear if you two argue the entire way to new berk, i’m throwing you both into the ocean.” Leyla tells them. 

“Okay,” Dagur starts, attempting to change the conversation, “We better get going so we can be there before dark.” 

“Okay,” Dak replies, turning to the older blonde, “Your better pick between Cutter or Burple to ride there because I doubt you want to ride with us.” 

Axel looks over to the two dragons watching the conversation, Burple didn’t look like he was listening but Cutter was. 

“He can ride with me.” Cutter tells them. 

The group of them turn to the twins expecting a translation of what the dragon said. 

“Cutter says you can ride with him.” Leyla tells the boy. 

“Great.” Axel responds. 

“Let's go now.” Dagur tells them. 

---

New Berk 

Nuffink and Zephyr were sitting outside waiting for the arrival of their family, the two of them knew about the twins their entire lives but with them getting kidnapped young they never actually met them. 

The twins could’ve been seen as ghosts in their family, no one ever wanted to talk about them. 

Most of the adults couldn’t talk about the twins mainly because it hurt them when they did. When the twins were taken it didn’t just affect The defenders of the wing but affected many other islands. 

They found out about Dak and Leyla being alive after their parents came back to New Berk, Valka and Gobber had been watching them while the dragon riders went to defenders of the wing. 

The two of them wanted to go to see Mala and Dagur but with the long flight their parents decided against it and promised to take them another time. 

It was cold outside, but neither of the Haddocks cared. 

Astrid and Hiccup were inside still, much to their children's discretion. Astrid had promised them that they would hear the horn when they arrived. Zephyr and Nuffink accepted their parents' reasoning, but the two of them still wanted to sit outside and wait. 

“What do you think they’re like?” Nuffink asks his sister. 

“I don’t know.” Zephyr replies, “Maybe they’ll be like Aunt Mala and Uncle Dagur.” 

“We actually get to meet them.” Nuffink says, “I thought we’d never meet them.” 

“We thought they were dead,” Zephyr responds, “We would’ve never met them.” 

“Ooh yeah,” Nuffink responds. 

Zephyr sighs at her younger brother's response, “I think I heard mom and dad talking about Aunt Heather and Uncle Fishlegs coming as well.” 

“Yes!” Nuffink yells standing on the bench. 

Zephyr was going to respond but was stopped by the sound of the horn going off. 

“They’re here!” Nuffink yells. 

“Is it even them?” Zephyr asks, “I just told you that Aunt Heather and Uncle Fishlegs were coming as well.” 

Nuffink turns to Zephyr, “Well I think it's them.” 

“Let’s see.” Zephyr responds, standing up from the bench. The girl walks over to where they could see the people arriving, “It’s Aunt Heather and Uncle Fishlegs.” 

“Awww.” Nuffink sighs. 

“Nuff.” Astrid says from the door. 

“I’m happy to see them but we see them once a month, we barely see Uncle Dagur and Aunt Mala.” Nuffink attempts to explain. 

“Can we go meet them?” Zephyr asks her mother. 

“Yeah, go.” Astrid responds, both of the siblings run from their home leaving their parents who stayed. 

Heather and Fishlegs rode their dragons to make it to New Berk; they had been invited by Hiccup and Astrid knowing that they could help with freeing the people of Hutsgalor. The two dragon riders land near the docks of the island, Snotlout and the nut twins meet them in town and were talking when the youngest Haddocks met them. 

“Aunt Heather!” Nuffink yelled, running towards the women. 

“Hey, Nuff.” Heather responds, catching the younger boy who jumped into her arms. 

“Favoritism.” Snotlout coughs. 

“You see them everyday.” Heather responds. 

Heather set down Nuffink to be able to hug Zephyr who walked up after her brother. 

“Are you guys excited to see Mala and Dagur?” Snotlout asks them. 

“Yes.” Nuffink replies, “And see Dak and Leyla.” 

“I honestly still can’t believe they’re alive.” Tuffnut tells the group. 

Resulting in him getting smacked by Snotlout, 

“Anyways,” Heather starts, turning to the Haddock siblings, “Where are your parents?” 

“The house still.” Nuffink responds. 

“They were cold.” Zephyr adds. 

“It is cold out here.” Fishlegs responds, 

“Let's go find your parents then we can meet in the great hall when Dagur and Mala get here.” Heather tells them. 

---

 

The group of them had been flying for a few hours, Burple who was continually asking if they were there, yet which started to annoy the fire fury. 

“Are we there yet?” Burple asks. 

“What did he say?” Mala asks the twins. 

“Same thing he’s been complaining about the entire way.” Leyla responds. 

“So are we there yet?” Burple asks again. 

“Burple I swear!” Aggro yells. 

Dak dramatically sighs, leaning back on his saddle. 

“This is the longest flight ever.” Burple complains. 

“I don’t think so.” Dak responds. 

“It’s no use Dak.” Leyla tells her twin. 

“But actually,” Axel starts, “How much longer?” 

“We should be at New Berk in a couple hours.” Mala responds. 

“Really?” Burple complains again. 

“Burps.” Leyla sighs. 

---

 

It had been a few more hours, and they started seeing New Berk. 

“There it is.” Dagur tells them, gesturing to the island in front of them. 

“Finally!” Burple yells. 

“Dramatic much.” Cutter mutters. 

“Cutter really?” Leyla asks the dragon. 

“What did he say?” Finn asks. 

“Nothing,” Dak responds. 

The group of them landing in the middle of the town, they were met by the dragon riders, with Gobber and Valka. 

Mala and Dagur dismount Sluether walking over to the group to greet them, the rescue riders on the other hand were still on their dragon watching. 

“Aunty Mala!” Nuffink yells running over to the women, who catched him much like Heather did before. Dagur watched the exchange before being greeted by Zephyr who also ran up. Zephyr, much like her brother, jumped into a hug, causing Dagur to spin her around. 

“Hi Uncle Dag.” Zephyr tells the man once she is back down. 

“Hello Zephyr.” Dagur replies. 

Nuffink and Zephyr look over at the Rescue Riders who are now all quietly talking, 

“They ride dragons too?” Nuffink asks. 

“Yeah,” Dagur responds. 

Nuffink turns to his parents who were talking with the others,

 “You didn’t tell us that part!” Nuffink yells. 

“Thought it would be better as a surprise.” Astrid responds. 

The Rescue Riders were looking at each other confused, none of them knowing how to respond. Leyla sighs before dismounting Summer walking towards her parents with the other three following the girls' lead and doing the same. Leyla stood next to her parents, with the other three standing next to her. 

“So.” Dagur starts. 

“We’re your cousins.” Nuffink interrupts. 

“Nuff!” Zephyr yells. 

“Well uncle Dag was taking forever.” Nuffink replies. 

Zephyr sighs before turning to the twins, who still looked confused. 

“I’m Zephyr and that’s Nuffink, which was right about the cousin thing.” Zephyr tells them. 

“N-nice to meet you.” Dak replies, not really knowing what to say to them. 

“This is weird.” Axel whispers, to Leyla. 

“You’re not wrong.” Leyla whispers back. 

“Anyways,” Hiccup says, getting the group's attention, “Let’s go to the town hall.” 

Zephyr and Nuffink run to meet their parents to walk, leaving them alone. 

“You could’ve warned us.” Leyla tells her parents as they walk. 

“Where’s the fun in that?” Dagur replies. 

“That was so weird.” Finn adds. 

“Yep, definitely.” Dak responds. 

“You’ll get used to them.” Mala responds. 

The group of them walked into the great hall which was mainly empty other than the dragons riders and their dragons. Zephyr and Nuffink were sitting down on one of the tables with their parents sitting near them, the rescue riders were looking around the room.

 In the end the 4 of them ended up sitting near Zephyr and Nuff on the table, while the adults were still standing around the room. 

“Okay so what are we dealing with?” Hiccup asks. 

“The man who was running the dragon training arena, what was his name?” Dagur asks, looking at his kids. 

“Gunnar.” Leyla answers. 

“Yes Gunnar," Dagur responds, snapping his fingers, "well he captured all of Huttsgalor because he needed the twins.” 

“Why did he want the twins?” Gobber asks. 

“Because the twins can understand what dragons say,” Hiccup explains. 

“What!” Gobber yells. 

“Yeah.” Dagur responds. 

“That’s not possible.” Valka laughs. 

“Says you.” Leyla mutters. 

“Leyla.” Dak tells her. 

“How would they even be able to do that?” Zephyr asks. 

“Raised by a dragon until we were seven.” Dak responds

“I spent 20 years with dragons and I could never do that.” Valka replies. 

“Okay the reason is, you were probably an adult or something when you started living with dragons and we were toddlers, who were still learning how to talk so naturally we picked up how to understand the dragons.” Leyla explains. 

“How do we really know?” Gobber sighs. 

Leyla sighs, turning around on the table to face the other direction. 

“Hold up any amount of fingers.” Leyla tells them. 

Before any of them do, Axel puts his hand over the girl's eyes. “Axe what?” Dak asks 

“To help prove her point.” Axel replies. 

The adults look around before Snotlout holds up 3 fingers. 

“Summer?” Leyla asks her dragon, who looks at the number answering the question. 

“3.” Leyla responds. 

Snotlout looks surprised sitting back down for someone else to try, Nuffink jumps up standing in front of them holding up 10 fingers. 

Summer tells her rider the answer again, 

“10.” Leyla responds, in a singsong voice. 

Nuffink looks shocked before returning to his seat beside his sister. 

“Anyone else?” Dak asks. 

Valka stands up, wanting to test it as well, the woman holds up 7 fingers waiting for the dragon to respond. 

“7 Leyla.” Summer tells the girl. 

“7.” Leyla tells her. 

Valka looks surprised like her grandchild looking around the room, which causes Summer to roar again unexpectedly . 

“Now she said you gave up.” Leyla tells the women turning back around. 

“That was incredible.” Valka tells her. 

“Anyways, now that’s done.” Dagur starts, “We need to plan about what we’re going to do.” 

“Ley.” Finn whispers to the girl, “Can we go outside for this part, can’t they tell us the complete plan later?”

“Sure Finny.” Leyla whispers back, Finn turns to the other Rescue Riders to explain while Leyla jumps up walking to her father who was still standing in the middle of the room near Hiccup.

Dagur turns to his daughter, confused. 

“Finn was wondering if we can go outside and you tell us the plan later.” Leyla whispers to her father. 

“Yeah go.” Dagur responds, Leyla turns to the others signaling that they could walk out. The Rescue Riders leave the great hall, leaving the rest of the adults confused. 

“Finn’s mother was taken in the attack.” Mala tells them. 

“Oh that poor boy.” Valka responds. 

“So they’re going to wait outside for the planning.” Dagur adds. 

“Zeph, Nuff go with them.” Astrid tells them. 

“Okay!” Nuffink yells jumping up with his sister following close behind him. 

Most of the rescue riders were sitting on the steps outside, while Dak was climbing up and down. The group of them looked up when they heard the doors behind them open. 

“So, do you guys want to look around the island?” Zephyr suggests. 

“Yeah, let’s do it.” 

---

It had been a few hours, Zephyr and Nuffink show’d the RR the entire island. Which was mainly Zephyr with Nuffink’s comptary. The sun had started setting over the island, so the group of them decided to start walking back to the great hall. 

Finn was walking slower behind the group with Nuffink near him, Dak turned to the two of them walking backwards watching them. 

“Dak.” Finn starts. 

“Yeah Finn?” Dak replies. 

“Can I please have a piggyback ride?” Finn asks. 

Dak dramatically sighs, before agreeing to give the boy the piggyback ride. 

Once Finn was on Dak’s back, Nuffink looked at them before turning to Leyla who was watching them.

“Leyla, you should give Nuffink a piggyback ride so we can race.” Dak suggests. 

Leyla turns to Nuffink who nods and runs over to her. 

Once both of the twins were ready, both of them lined up before taking off running towards the town hall. 

“Are they always so competitive?” Zephyr asks. 

“Yeah.” Axel replies. 

Both of the twins' step on the stairs at the same time, letting the kids down on their backs down before starting to argue. 

“I won that.” Dak states. 

“No, you didn’t!” Leyla yells at him. 

“I think Leyla won.” Nuffink interrupts. 

“2, 1.” Leyla tells her brother. 

“I think Dak won.” Finn adds. 

“2, 2.” Dak replies. 

“Who won?” Axel yells at them. 

“I did!” Both of the twin's yell. 

“Oh-.” Axel responds, “So a tie?” 

“Definitely not.” Dak responds 

“Because I won.” Leyla tells her brother. 

“No-.” Dak starts. 

“What’s going on?” Dagur asks. 

The adults had finished planning, wanting to go out to see where the kids went. 

“Dak and Ley raced, tied and refused to admit it.” Axel replies. 

“Oh,” Dagur laughs. 

“Just like they’re parents.” Ruffnut laughs. 

“Well, we finished the plan,” Mala tells them.

“When are we going to do it?” Dak asks. 

“Soon after we leave here.” Mala replies. 

“Okay,” Dak responds. 

“You're leaving already?” Nuffink asks. 

“We’ll be back soon, I promise.” Dagur responds. 

“And we’re planning on visiting Defenders of the Wing soon.” Astrid tells them. 

“Yes!” Nuffink yells 

“And we’re staying here tonight.” Dagur tells the boy. 

“Oh yeah.” Nuffink responds. 

“Did you forget?” Zephyr asks. 

“Yeah.” Nuffink responds. 

“Well since you guys are staying the night do we want to start dinner?” Astrid asks. 

“Probably for the best.” Mala replies. 

“Okay before dinner.” Nuffink starts, “If the twins are okay with it can we please go on a dragon ride?” Astrid and Hiccup turn to the twins, for a response

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Dak replies. 

“Yes!” Nuffink yells. 

“Fine but be back before dinner.” Astrid responds. 

“Cool, let’s go.” Dak tells the group who runs to their dragons. 

Nuffink and Zephyr were looking at the dragons, attempting to decide which rider they wanted to fly with. 

“Which one is the fastest?” Zephyr asks.

“Winger.” Dak responds. 

“Can I ride with you then?” Zephyr asks the boy. 

“Yep.” Dak replies, allowing Zephyr to join him on Wingers back. Nuffink ran over to Leyla, who helped him on the saddle. 

The RR took off from the ground flying over the island, leaving the adults alone watching them from the ground. 

“Those two have gotten big over the years.” Gobber tells the group. 

“Yeah, that’s aging.” Snotlout replies. 

Most of the adults went to help with dinner, while Dagur and Mala stayed outside watching their kids race through the sky with their cousins.

Valka was standing near them watching as well, “It’s weird, isn’t it? You only knew them when they were young and now you’ve found that they’ve grown into the people you see today.” 

“How’d you deal with it?” Mala asks the women. 

“I got to know the new version of Hiccup,” Valka responds, “And we got used to each other, the same thing will happen eventually with the twins.” 

Mala smiles at the women before she walks off, after the kids spent several minutes flying through the night sky they landed next to the adults watching them. 

“That was amazing.” Nuffink tells them, dismounting Summer. 

“It was.” Zephyr agrees, “Honestly I think Winger is faster than Toothless.” 

“Well Swiftwings are one of the fastest dragons.” Leyla tells them, dismounting her dragon. 

“That’s so cool.” Nuffink responds. 

“How do you know?” Zephyr asks. 

“Been studying dragons my entire life.” Leyla responds. 

“You should see her dragon diary.” Dak tells them wrapping an arm around his twin’s shoulder, “Full to the brim with knowledge of almost every dragon.” 

“I bet Uncle Fishlegs would love to see that.” Nuffink responds. 

“Kids!” Astrid yells, from the house.

“Let’s go!” Nuffink yells running towards their home, followed by his sister and the Rescue Riders. 

The group of them actually ate in the great hall, most of the riders were done eating and talking with each other. 

Dak and Leyla were explaining something to Burple who got confused at something. 

“Honestly it’s amazing how they can talk to dragons.” Valka admires. 

“It really is.” Hiccup replies. 

“Good thing Drago is gone, he’d love being able to do that.” Tuffnut tells them. 

“Let’s not even joke about that.” Astrid responds. 

---

Gunnar and Magnus were walking through one of the ships, Magnus had to explain the Alpha crystals multiple times to the two brothers. 

Who both got annoyed at him when they learned he didn’t know where the twins hid them, Drago was now dealing with his hunters who returned with new dragons.

Magnus looked in the cages on the ship, but instead of seeing dragons it was the people of Hutsgalor. 

“You’re going to regret this Magnus.” Hannarh tells the man, 

“Haven’t regretted yet.” Magnus laughs. 

“Oh no but you’ll get what’s coming to you.” Hannarh tells him. 

“Agree to Disagree.” Magnus responds walking away, laughing at the woman. 

Notes:

Piggyback rides are an important part of cousin bonding

The nightlights and light fury do exist in this au just they are living in the hidden world with Toothless visiting them most nights,

Chapter 14: Awakening Echoes

Summary:

The battle to get the people of Huttsgalor back
(Blood, injury, descriptions of medical stuff, and blood on hands literally)

Notes:

Been waiting to write this chapter for a while

Gunnar is built just like Drago, needed to be said before reading

The next morning the group departed from New Berk, Zephyr and Nuffink were left with Valka and Gobber who volunteered to watch them. The dragon riders went to Defenders of the Wing first, to prepare. Snotlout was talking with Throk who was also going to join them to free the people of Hutsgalor. 

The Rescue Riders were dorking off in the corner while the adults talked. Axel had been given a weapon to use for the battle, which was one of Mala’s older swords. Finn on the other hand promised to stay in the sky and not fight anyone without Aggro, but was given a weapon just in case. 

Leaving Defenders of the Wing, the group of them flew to where they knew Gunnar’s camp was. The dragon riders' set plan was that the adults would attack the ships getting the attention of the hunters while the rescue riders went to find the people of Hutsgalor. 

The dragon riders landed on a cliff looking over Gunnar’s camp, Hiccup was looking over the camp with a telescope. 

“The camp looks just how it should.” Hiccup tells them. 

Handing the telescope to his wife who was next to him, who looked over the entire camp. One of the ship flags looked familiar but she didn’t know how, Astrid handed the telescope back to Hiccup who put it in his saddle bag. 

“So on to the plan?” Dagur asks his brother. 

“Yep.” Hiccup replies.  

The older dragon riders mounted their dragons, Hiccup and Astrid started firing on the first line of ships while the rest of the dragon riders took out the remaining ones. 

“I’ve missed this!” Snotlout yells, while Hookfang fires on one of the ships. 

“You and I, both Snotman!” Tuffnut yells, after Barf and Belch release a ball of fire at another ship. 

Hiccup laughs at his friends, while Toothless counties blasting ships. 

“You missed this too, didn’t you?” Hiccup asks his dragon. 

“A little bit.” Toothless responds. 

“I really wish I could understand you like the twins can.” Hiccup mutters, causing the night fury to laugh at him. “Ha ha.” 

“Um, Hiccup!” Astrid yells, catching his attention. 

“Yes, Milady?” Hiccup asks, flying over to his wife. 

“Do you recognize those ship’s flags at all?” Astrid asks. 

Hiccup looked towards the ships his wife was talking about. 

Most of the ships were the same size except for one, this ship is more elevated and consists of three masts and four sails. The sails depict a Monstrous Nightmare head with a sword through its middle. 

Hiccup noticed the sail on the biggest ship, looking at the other ships' sails to see if they were familiar. 

All of the joining ships had a similar design to the first one, such as a similar dragon head with arrows, shackles coming down towards it or catapulted rocks around it, or the same logo viewed from its left side, others include crossed swords and a dragon head with a large lower jaw.

“Aren’t those the flags Drago used?” Snotlout cuts in. 

“Yeah.” Hiccup responds, “But he’s dead, so someone else has to be doing it.” 

“We know who.” Tuffnut cuts in. 

“That Gunnar dude.” Ruffnut finished. 

“Make sense, he was also trying to tame dragons like Drago.” Fishlegs responds. 

“Let’s just deal with them so they’re done.” Hiccup tells them. 

---

the Rescue Riders who were watching the adults attack, causing a distraction for them, were preparing to take off from the mountain. 

“Okay are we ready for this?” Dak asks them. 

“Yep.” Finn replies. 

“As ready as we can be.” Axel adds. 

“Let’s do this then.” Dak tells them. 

The Rescue Riders dive down towards the hundreds of ships, most of the hunters were previously distracted and taken down by the other dragon riders. The four of them landed on the ship Marena told them the people of Huttsgalor should’ve been on, Dak and Finn ran under the deck to find the people of Hutsgalor while Axel and Leyla stayed on the deck to protect them. 

Unlocking the cages they only found half of Huttsgalor which didn’t include Finn’s mother, Duggard walked out grabbing Dak in a bone crushing hug. 

“Are you okay?” Duggard asks him, cupping his adopted sons face

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Dak replies, getting out of the man’s embrace. 

“Is my mom here?” Finn asks, looking around. 

“I’m sorry, Finn but no she isn’t here.” Duggard responds 

Finn's shoulders dropped; Dak set his hand on Finn's shoulder making the younger boy look at him. 

“We’ll find her.” Dak tells the boy, “There’s a beach not fair from here, get the people there and we’ll get you home afterwards.”

“Got it.” Duggard responds. 

The two rescue riders ran up to where Leyla and Axel were, “Half of Huttsgalor is gone.” Dak explains. 

“Me and Ley can check the nearby ships.” Axel suggests. 

“Do it.” Dak responds, “Me and Finn will help the people.” 

“Got it.” Leyla responds, 

Dak hugs his twin before the two of them leave, “Be safe Leyla you two Axel.” 

Leyla and Axel flew away leaving the boys, except one of the boys they left wasn't following the plan.

Dak went back down to help the people. Finn looked towards Aggro who figured out what he wanted to do and nodded. Finn mounted Aggro following the two older Rescue riders, landing on the same ship as them but unseen by them. 

Leyla and Axel landed on another one of the ships, the strange thing about it was that there were no hunters manning it. 

“Where is everyone?” Axel asks Leyla. 

“I don’t know.” Leyla responds, looking around the deck of the ship,

“Well look who it is.” Gunnar laughs, walking up from the underbelly of the ship. The two dragon riders turn to face the man, who was holding his own weapon, “The princess of defenders of the wing, and Magnus Finkes nephew. Honestly, I expected less with the way he talked about you.” 

“Is there any point to this?” Axel asks. 

“Personally, I don’t think there's one.” Leyla replies. 

“He’s trying to distract us.” Axel laughs. 

“Trying is the word of choice.” Leyla responds. 

“Can you both-!” Gunnar starts. 

“Hey, we're trying to have a conversation here.” Axel tells the man. 

“Be polite and wait your turn to speak.” Leyla tells the man, attempting not to laugh. 

“I think Magnus has better manners.” Axel tells her. 

“That’s saying something.” Leyla chuckles. 

“Shut up!” Gunnar yells. 

“What did we just say about manners?” Axel asks. 

Gunnar doesn’t respond but screams at them swinging his sword towards the teens. Leyla grabs her ax off of her saddle, looking towards Axel who also had his own weapon. Gunnar swung his weapon again towards the teens which didn’t hit either of them but instead cut a rope releasing one of the many nets being held up to nail him down to the deck of the ship. 

While Gunnar was attempting to free himself, Leyla looked up at the copious number of items hanging above them, before getting an idea. Running over to Axel, whispering so the older man wouldn’t hear “I’ll distract him while you get the people of Huttsgalor.” Axel nods, 

Gunnar laughs at the girl after flailing around with the net, successfully getting out after cutting it, holding his sword up to her, “You really think you can win?” 

“Nope.” Leyla laughs, cutting a rope with her axe which sends another net flying down over the man. With Gunnar distracted, Axel ran down to the lower part of the ship that was holding the people of Hutsgalor. Gunnar got the net off of himself, looking around to find neither of the dragon riders. 

“Come on kiddies.” Gunnar tells Leyla not knowing Axel wasn’t on the ship deck anymore. Leyla cuts another rope sending another net down, this time the man avoids the net falling. “This isn’t a fight!” 

Leyla doesn’t respond and cuts another rope, which snaps quickly but makes a louder noise alerting the man. 

Gunnar turned towards the sound, causing Leyla to hide behind one of the crates on the deck. 

“One more.” Leyla whispers to herself, before attempting to crawl over to the last rope she could cut. 

“There you are!” Gunnar yells, slicing the crate. 

Nearly missing the younger girl, Leyla jumps up running to the last rope but is stopped by Gunnar. Gunnar held Leyla back by the hood of her scarf. 

Gunnar started laughing at the girl, who was flailing around attempting to get herself free. 

While Gunnar was distracted, Leyla turned her ax to hit Gunnar in the knee with the back metal causing him to drop her. 

Leyla climbs one of the crates, jumping higher up out of the man's reach. She takes a chance to catch her breath which was a mistake, Gunnar pushed over the crate Leyla was on causing her to fall onto the deck of the ship. The fall knocked the air out of the girl. 

Gunnar looked over to Leyla who was attempting to recover her breath afterwards. 

The older man stalked over to the girl who had recovered her breath but was defenseless 

Leyla’s ax was out of reach, as Gunnar walked closer to her. The only thing she was able to do was scoot back from the man slowly walking towards her, which Leyla did until her back hit the side of the ship 

“This has been fun.” Gunnar laughs, swinging his sword down towards the girl. 

---

Axel ran throughout the bottom of the ship looking for the remaining people of Hutsgalor, he stopped short in front of a cell which had Hannahr and a few other people from Hutsgalor. 

“Hannahr?” Axel asks. 

The blonde woman jumps up, turning towards the other blonde, “Axel?”

“Good to see you again.” Axel tells the woman, “Do you know where the keys are?” 

“They’re hanging on the wall.” Hannahr responds pointing to the wall. 

Axel grabs the keys, unlocking the cell door, Hannahr walks out facing the boy. 

“You’re not with your uncle anymore?” Hannahr asks the boy.  

“Nope.” Axel mutters. 

“Great, he’s always been a little weird.” Hannahr tells the blonde, “But teaming up with an insane person was something else.” 

“Yep.” Axel replies, the teen looks around at the other cages which also had people of Huttsgalor in them, “Are all the cell locks attached to those keys?” 

“Yes-.” Hannahr responds. 

“Great you work on freeing the people while I go help Ley.” Axel explains. 

“Great,” Hannahr responds, getting handed the keys by the teen. 

“Wait, is Finn’s mother on this ship?” Axel asks. 

“Yeah, I’ve seen her somewhere.” Hannahr replies but is interrupted by a scream of pain from the upper deck. 

“Leyla!” Axel yells. 

“Go help her,” Hannahr tells the boy. 

Axel runs up to the deck, seeing Leyla clutching her leg while Gunnar stands over her. Axel didn’t know how he was going to help Leyla, Gunnar was huge compared to them.

Luckily someone else had a plan, the sound of another rope being cut filled the air before Gunnar was downed by a crate that used to be held up by the ropes. 

The blonde ran over to Leyla, who was still clutching her leg, her hands stained a bright red scarlet color. 

“Shit Ley.” Axel starts, looking at the blood running from her leg. Axel knew some about first aid from reading, but this was too much even with his knowledge. 

Finn dropped down near them getting the teen’s attention, “Finn, did you?” Leyla starts. 

“Doesn’t matter,” Axel cuts off, “Finn go find, Mala, Dagur, or Throk now!” 

Finn listened to Axel, mounting Aggro again, flying to find one of the adults. The adults were on the other side of the battlefield, most of them were off their dragons fighting with their weapons on the ship decks. Dagur, Mala, and Throk included, all three of them were on a single ship making it easy to find them. 

The blonde landed on the ship with them, getting the attention of the adults. 

“Finn, dear what are you doing here?” Mala asks the boy. 

“It’s Leyla.” Finn responds. 

“What about Leyla?” Throk asks. 

“She’s hurt, like really hurt.” Finn responds. 

“Dagur go with him while we finish up here, we’ll meet you when these people are done with.” Mala tells them. 

“Got it.” Dagur responds, getting on Sluther flying with Finn to where Axel and Leyla were. 

---

“Okay, Ley.” Axel starts, looking at the wound, “Give me your bag.” 

the injured person doesn't question it and hands her bag over, Axel detaches the handle from the bag before grabbing Leyla’s ankle.”This is going to hurt like hell.” 

Leyla nods, looking up so she doesn’t see Axel straightens out her leg to be able to put a tourniquet on it. The blood starts slowing, causing a sigh out of Axel. “Okay, okay, okay.” Axel mutters to himself looking around the ship. 

“What are you looking for?” Leyla asks tiredly. 

“Something to wrap your leg up with.” Axel responds, looking over at Leyla. 

Dagur lands on the ship with Finn close behind him, running over to the teens. Dagur drops to one of his knees to get a closer look at his daughter. 

“Hey Dad.” Leyla sighs, looking at the man. 

“Dagur watches her while I find something to wrap her leg up.” Axel tells the man. Axel runs looking around the ship, while Dagur looks at his daughter. 

Leyla’s skin was much paler than it should’ve been, her once green pants were now ripped and stained red, Axel runs back holding a cloth and some rope.

“It’s not the best but it’ll work.” Axel tells them, setting down the makeshift bandages. Axel looks up at Dagur who was looking in between the two teens. “Dagur holds Leyla’s arms down while I do this.” Axel tells the man. 

“Why!” Leyla asks, while Dagur grabs her arms holding them both in one hand wrapping his free hand over this daughter’s shoulders 

“Because I'd prefer not to get punched.” Axel replies. 

“I wouldn’t punch you.” Leyla grumbles.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Axel responds, putting the makeshift bandage over the wound. 

Axel presses down on the bandage, applying pressure over the area. 

Leyla groans at the bandaged sudden contact, which made her attempt to turn out of her fathers arms. 

“Sorry Ley.” Axel tells her, grabbing the rope wrapping it around the wound as well in an attempt to keep the pressure consistent. “Okay she should be good until we get home.” 

“Great.” Leyla groans at the pain, 

Dagur stands up, helping Leyla up in the process. 

Axel rushes over, wrapping Leyla’s arm around his shoulders allowing her to use him as a crutch. 

“Looks like you saved me this time, Axe.” Leyla tells the boy, referring to the spring festival. 

“Looks like it.” Axel responds. 

“Axel get Leyla up to the meeting spot and stay.” Dagur tells the boy, looking over to Finn who was standing over Gunnar who was still knocked out “You too Finn.” 

Finn nods but looks between Gunnar and Aggro for a moment. Before laughing at kicking Gunnar in the head, “That’s for taking my mother.” Finn tells the unconscious man before walking to Aggro. 

Axel and Leyla laugh at the younger blonde's actions, the older teen helps Leyla over to Summer then goes to Cutter all three of them fly up to find the mountain which was their meeting spot. 

---

 

Dak had successfully gotten the people off the ship, now the red head was standing near his dragon on the ship deck looking around. Most of the surrounding ships had been sunk, a few still stood but were covered with scorch marks and torn sails. 

Finn who was supposed to help him had disappeared not long after Leyla and Axe left, Dak knew the reason the youngest of them snuck off so he didn’t stop him. 

Dak looked over to the ship the other rescue riders should’ve been on but only one person was on the deck. 

Dagur was standing on the ship with Sleuther next to him, 

“What is Dagur doing?” Winger asks his brother. 

“I don’t know.” Dak responds, “Want to find out?” 

“Yeah.” Winger responds. 

Dak climbs on Wingers back, the two of them flying over to where Dagur was. 

The redhead jumps off Winger, getting the attention of his father. 

“Are you okay?” Dak asks his father. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Dagur responds. 

Dak looks around the ship, trying to see where the others were but couldn’t find them. 

“Where is Ley, Axe, and Finn?” Dak asks. 

“Up at the meeting spot.” Dagur replies. 

“Why? That wasn’t the plan?” Dak asks. 

“Something happened.” Dagur responds.

“What happened?” Dak asks concern etched into his features. 

“She’s fine.” Dagur responds. 

“What happened to Leyla?” 

“Gunnar, cut her leg open, we've dealt with it, she'll be fine.” Dagur explains. 

“Why didn't you get me?” Dak asks, “Why didn’t anyone get me?” 

“We needed everyone to stay calm.” Dagur explains. 

“You didn’t think I deserved to know?” Dak asks. 

“That’s not what I said.” Dagur attempts to calm the boy down. 

Dak scoffs, turning around, “I’m going to meet the others.” 

Dak flies off to meet the others, leaving Dagur alone again.

Dagur sighs as his son leaves, turning to his dragon. 

“He didn’t really mean that right?” Dagur asks his dragon. 

“No idea.” Sluether responds. 

“I’m guessing that you said no.” Dagur responds. 

“Sure.’ Sluether tells his rider. 

“Let’s go help the others.” Dagur tells his dragon, climbing on his back. 

---

 

The last remaining Rescue Rider found the rest of them quickly, Leyla was still sitting on Summer. While Axel and Finn were walking around. 

Dak and Winger land getting the attention of the rest of the RR. The redhead jumps off his dragon rushing over to his sibling. 

“Hey Dak.” Leyla says tiredly. 

“Leyla.” Dak responds, carefully hugging her, “What happened?” Dak eventually asks after letting his twin go. 

“Gunnar happened.” Leyla responds, looking at her brother who was still concerned, “Dak, I’m fine.” 

Dak sighs, sitting next to his twin of her dragon, 

“I know.” Dak responds. 

“If it makes you feel better Gunnar got the worst of it.” Axel tells the boy. 

“He did?” Dak asks, looking up. 

“Yeah, someone dropped a crate of metal on him.” Axel responds, “And then kicked him in the head.” 

“And that someone was me.” Finn adds proudly. 

“Good thing you snuck off.” Dak laughs. 

“Sorry about that.” Finn says sheepishly.

“It’s okay Finn, you were just trying to find your mom.” Dak tells him. 

“Speaking of that.” Axel starts, “I think Duggard and Hannahr got everyone safely out and they’re on the beach down there.” 

“Really?” Finn asks. 

“Yep.” Dak responds, “And I made a promise to help find her so let’s go.” 

Finn looked back at the other rescue riders who nodded before running over to Aggro. The two of them flew down to the people of Huttsgalor who were talking on the beach. Finn doesn’t wait for Aggro to land and jumps off when she is close enough to the ground. 

Dak does the same as the younger blonde who gets the attention of the people on the beach. Finn starts looking around at the people, looking for his mother. 

The blonde woman snuck up behind her son, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. 

Finn turns around, jumping into the woman's arms. 

“Mom!” Finn yells, hugging her. 

“I missed you Finny.” His mother replied, pulling away to be able to cup her son's face, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Finn responds to his mom. 

Finn’s mom pulls him back into the embrace as the rest of them watch.

Hannahr walks over to Dak, who was still watching the reunion. 

“Is Leyla okay?” Hannahr asks. 

“She’ll be fine.” Dak replies. 

“That’s amazing.” Hannahr sighs, “I was worried.” 

“Yep, she is fine.” Dak mutters to himself. 

“Well everyone.” Duggard starts getting the attention of them, “We need to get back to Huttsgalor.” 

“Oh don’t worry about that chief, we have a plan for that.” Dak interrupts 

“You do?” Duggard asks, “What you’ll fly us all back?” 

“No, my parents are going to help.” Dak responds. 

“Oh.” Duggard responds, “So Magnus and Gunnar were telling the truth about your parents?” 

“Yeah, they were.” Dak mutters. 

“Well.” Duggard starts happily, “I’ve got to meet them, I have plenty of stories to tell them about you two.” 

“Yeah.” Dak smiles, “Wait what stories!”

---

The dragon riders had finished taking down Gunnar’s camp, most of the hunters had run scared of them.

Leaving very few left, Magnus and Drago were looking over the yard of broken ships. 

“I told you not to underestimate them.” Magnus tells the man, “Luckily for you I’m still open to work with you.” 

Drago doesn’t respond to the man, instead continues looking over the yard of ships. 

“Where is my brother?” Drago asks. 

“Med,” Magnus responds, “Got hit a little too hard on the head, why?” 

“Because I think it’s time to change our tactics.” Drago responds. 

“Change them to what?” Magnus asks.

“We need to find another king of dragons.” Drago tells him.

“But what about the alpha crystals?” Magnus asks. 

“Those are still a key factor, but now you’ll find them.” Drago tells the man walking off. 

“What?” Magnus yells after the man. 

---

On the Defenders of the Wing it was packed, the dragon riders were on the island. Most of Huttsgalor returned home except for Duggard, Finn, and his mother. 

Luckily most of the rescue riders were in a secluded area, Leyla had gotten her leg properly bandaged and now was sitting watching as Dak and Finn were for some reason chasing each other around. 

Axel on the other hand, wasn’t with them for most of the time they’ve been home

The oldest of them was washing his hands raw. 

They had been back for an hour at most, and Axel spent the entire time washing his hands. 

His hands were clean but they didn’t feel clean to Axel, just a few hours before both of his hands had been covered in blood. 

A person he's started seeing as a sister blood, 

Axel wasn’t attempting to wash the blood away anymore he was trying to wash the memory of the moment 

Not for a long shot. 

Notes:

I have no idea if it's accurate or not, but I put a shit ton of research into that Axel and Leyla part

Also, I don't know I feel about the Axel part in the end so I might delete it but I'm just going to post it for now

Chapter 15: The Silent Aftermath

Summary:

After the battle and getting the people of Huttsgalor back

Notes:

I love writing, Dak, Leyla, and Axel as siblings

I wanted this chapter to be longer, but I didn't have any ideas to make it longer

It had been a week since the people of Hutsgalor were returned to their island, Finn went home with his mom but had visited multiple times in the one week alone. Huttsgalor was getting better with Duggard back, and the island was almost rebuilt from the attack that happened months before. Axel even with the island of Huttsgalor having everyone back stayed on Defenders of the Wing his reasoning was that they hadn’t gotten Magnus back yet. 

So here 5 of them were sitting outside near the eruptodon, Dak actually wasn’t sitting down and was walking around much to his twin's dismay. “Why do you do this to me?” Leyla complains. 

“It’s not my fault you can’t walk long distances yet.”  Dak responds. Leyla’s injury had gotten better over the week, but she still couldn’t walk far distances and definitely couldn’t be pacing around like her twin was

“That’s not my fault either,” Leyla replies, “Gunnar had it out for me.” 

“It didn’t help that we started insulting him.” Axel adds in, sitting next to Leyla on the ground. 

“It was really fun though.” Leyla tells him. 

“Was it worth the pain?” Dagur asks his daughter. 

“Well no.” Leyla responds, “But it was really fun.” 

“I think we have different definitions of fun.” Mala responds to her daughter

“I thought it was fun too.” Axel adds in. 

“Then you both have the same definition.” Dak tells them. 

“Isn’t your definition jumping off a dragon and almost dying?” Leyla asks, remembering the times she’d watch him do it. 

“Well-” Dak starts, “Yeah.” 

“Then you can’t say anything.” Axel laughs. 

“This is bullying.” Dak mutters. 

“Not really.” Leyla responds to her twin. 

“Ugh.” Dak groans, throwing his head back at their responses. 

“It’s getting late.” Mala starts, “We better get home before it gets much later.” 

“Yeah.” Axel responds, reaching a hand down to help the redhead girl up. 

“Thanks Axe.” Leyla tells the boy after grabbing his hand. 

The 5 of them walked out of the area, towards their home. It was getting colder in the year and the island was preparing for winter, the Defenders of the Wing winter wasn’t as intense as berk’s but the island still needed to prepare in case of a bad storm. 

Their home was warm constantly, Mala insisted on it, she hated the cold, Dagur knew this and kept their home warmer. Axel, much like Mala, hated the cold so he was grateful for how warm the house was. Living with Magnus he didn’t care much for anything except himself, so the only heater was in Magnus’s room leaving Axel to freeze during the winter. Neither of the twins were necessarily bothered by the cold, much to Axel’s annoyance, living in the wild for so long it was easier for them to ignore their surroundings. 

The group of them had already eaten, they spent dinner with Throk who Mala invited to join them. Over the months Throk had started getting closer to the royal family again, after the twins were taken Throk blamed himself for years separating himself from Mala and Dagur. With the twins' return Mala made it a priority to get closer with Throk again. 

Dagur opened the door for the others behind him, their home was more alive now than it was before. The three Rescue Riders rooms were filled with stuff, most of it was from the Roost and what they raided from Magnus’s home for Axel on the other hand some of it was gifts the twins received when they were young. 

“I’m exhausted.” Axel groans, walking back towards his room. 

“We didn’t do anything today.” Dak responds, walking with Axel. 

“Dealing with you is a lot of work.” Axel laughs. 

“Hey-” Dak yells at him. 

“Can you two ever not fight?” Leyla asks. 

“Where the fun in that.” Dak chuckles. 

“Yeah, where the fun in that Ley?” Axel mimics. 

“I’m going to bed,” Leyla tells them, turning away, “Goodnight.” 

“Night Ley.” Dak responds to her. 

“Dak.” Axel starts. 

“Yeah?” Dak asks. 

“Can you go to bed at a decent time?” Axel asks. “We share a wall.” 

“I went to bed at a decent time.” Dak argues, “What are you hearing?” 

“You talking to yourself.” Axel explains. 

“I don’t talk to myself.” Dak responds, “You are hearing things.” 

“He might be talking in his sleep.” Dagur cuts in, “Mala does too.” 

“No, I don't.” Mala argues to her husband. 

“Sure.” Dagur mutters, making Mala smack him on the shoulder.

“This entire family has sleeping issues.” Axel complains. 

“I don’t.” Dagur responds to the teen’s complaint. 

“You snore exactly like Leyla does.” Dak argues. 

“I do?” Dagur asks. 

“Yeah definitely.” Mala laughs. 

“How do you know it’s me?” Dagur asks. 

“Because your snores are louder and deeper than Leyla’s.” Axel explains. 

“How do you sleep through it?” Dagur asks them. 

“I’ve slept through Leyla’s snores for years; it was just practice at this point.” Dak explains. 

“If I can sleep through Magnus’s screams and building in the night, I can sleep through anything.” Axel adds on. 

“How long did you live with him?” Mala asks, while Dagur ignores the rest of the conversation, walking to his and Mala’s room. 

“Like a year.” Axel answers, “My parents sent me to 5 relatives before him but none of them wanted me, so Magnus was the last resort.”
“No offence Axe but your family sucks.” Dak tells the teen. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I know.” Axel answers. 

“Okay, well we can talk more about this tomorrow.” Mala tells the boys, “Go to bed.” 

“Night, mum.” Dak responds to the women walking into his room.

“Goodnight Mala.” Axel tells her, going to his room as well. 

Mala walks into the room Dagur was in, he was getting ready for bed when Mala walked in. 

“Axel’s family sounds horrible.” Mala mutters loud enough for Dagur to hear.

“His uncle reminds me of Snotlout’s father, both sound like a piece of work.” Dagur responds to his wife. 

“Well, Snotlout’s father has gotten a little better sense Stoick.” Mala adds in. 

“Yeah, but when Snotlout was younger he was a horrible person, once told Snotlout that he should get rid of Hookfang.” 

“Snotlout told me about the last time they needed our help.” Mala responds. 

“Personally, I don’t think we should let Axel go back to his family.” Dagur mutters. 

“Well, it’s not our choice.” Mala responds, “We could talk to him about it tomorrow.” 

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Dagur responds.

---

It was a few hours later, the three teens were sitting alone in the living room. Axel had a nightmare earlier waking both of the twins up, so now Dak and Leyla were standing in front of Axel who was sitting down. 

“I’m sorry for waking you two up, again.” Axel mutters towards the twins. 

“It’s fine, Axe.” Dak responds.

“We all have nightmares.” Leyla assures. 

“Yeah, but I woke up half the house.” Axel mutters, putting his face in his hands. 

“Axel,” Leyla drags, “It’s fine, no one is mad.” 

“I’m going to take a guess, and say your family were ass when it came to nightmares.” Dak guesses. 

“Yeah, they were.” Axel answers. 

“Who would’ve guessed.” Leyla mutters. 

“It’s a little too early for sarcasm.” Dak complains, falling into the chair next to Axel. 

“Hm.” Leyla responds, shrugging her shoulders and sitting next to her twin. 

“What should we do until Dad and Mum wake up?” Dak asks, looking at the other two. 

“I have no clue.” Leyla responds, kicking her legs up onto her brother's lap. 

“Leyla.” Dak complains, pushing his sister away. 

“Rude.” Leyla mutters in response. 

“I think it’s too early to be arguing.” Axel tells the twins. 

“It definitely is.” Leyla mutters. 

“We can continue this argument later.” Dak yawns. 

“Got it.” Leyla mutters.

---

The next morning, Dagur and Mala both walk out into the living room to find the three teens asleep on the couch using each other as pillows. 

“That’s adorable.” Dagur mutters, looking at the teens. 

“Yeah.” Mala smiles looking at them. 

“Should we wake them up?” Dagur asks, looking at them. 

“No, let them sleep, I heard them talking last night” Mala responds. 

“And what were they talking about?” Dagur asks. 

“Nightmares.” Mala responds, “They were up late, at least a few hours.” 

“Oh.” Dagur sighs, looking back at the teens. 

“Yeah,” Mala responds, “With those three sleeping you get to help me.” 

“With?” Dagur asks. 

“Breakfast.” Mala answers, walking towards their kitchen.

“Are you sure?” Dagur asks, “I burn water.” 

“Well Axel usually helps but I’m not going to wake him.” Mala responds, making her husband follow her. 

“Okay,” Dagur sighs, following the woman “I’m sorry if I poison the family.” 

“All you're doing is cutting stuff.” Mala responds, throwing something at him. 

“Okay good.” Dagur sighs, “I won’t poison the family.” 

---

Out of the three sleeping teens, Leyla was the first one to wake after hearing Mala and Dagur, looking at the other two sleeping next to her. Luckily Leyla was on the end, so she wasn’t being used as a pillow like Dak and Axel. The red head walks to the kitchen looking to see her parents cooking. 

“How did you do that?” Mala asks, looking at the weirdly cut food.

“I told you.” Dagur complains, getting a look out of his wife, “Sorry, but I told you something like this would happen.” 

Leyla laughs, revealing her presents to her parents, “Good morning.” Mala tells the girl. 

“Morning mum.” Leyla responds, walking over to where her parents were. Looking at the poorly cut food, “Dad was right he shouldn’t be allowed in the kitchen.” 

“How about, Leyla helps me finish and you go get more firewood.” Mala suggests. 

“Brilliant as always.” Dagur responds to his wife, wiping off his hands and leaving the room. 

“Has he always been bad at cooking?” Leyla asks her mother, taking over her father’s job. 

“Yes.” Mala responds, “Well he's gotten better over the years, but he still can burn water somehow.” 

“That’s where Dak must get it from.” Leyla chuckles. 

“What about me?” Dak asks, walking in. 

“That you suck at cooking.” Leyla answers. 

“Oh yeah, I burn kitchens down.” Dak laughs. 

“Have you actually?” Mala asks her son. 

“No, but I have accidentally lit stuff on fire.” Dak responds. 

“Which could be equally as concerning.” Leyla mutters, “Is Axe up yet?” 

“He woke up when I moved.” Dak responds, looking into the living room. Axel was awake folding the blankets the three of them had brought out. 

“Okay,” Leyla responds, handing what he cut up to her mother, “I think that’s all of it.”

“Thank you, Leyla.” Mala responds, looking at the three teens, “How about you three go help Dagur while I finish this.” 

“Help dad with what?” Dak asks. 

“Getting firewood, we ran out late last night.” Mala answers. 

“Oh okay.” Dak responds, running out with the two other teens.

---

It was later in the day, breakfast had been eaten, cleaned up and now the family was sitting around the living room. “It’s so cold outside.” Axel complains. 

“Not really.” Dak mutters. 

“I don’t want to hear it.” Axel responds to the twin, “I swear you two don’t feel the cold.” 

“That’s what happens when you're raised by a dragon.” Dak responds.

“I think it’s more because we lived in the wild.” Leyla argues, “And most of the time couldn’t get a fire started.” 

“Even during the winter?” Mala asks the girl. 

“Sometimes,” Leyla responds, “We had to steal a lot of stuff to actually get the fires started.” 

“We also stole both of our cloaks” Dak adds on. 

“Do you know who you stole it from?” Axel asks. 

“Some hunters.” Leyla answers, “That's where we got a lot of our stuff.” 

“Well at least it wasn’t from decent people that needed it.” Axel mutters, looking at the twins. 

“We always made sure it was from hunters.” Dak responds. 

“Well, that’s good.” Dagur tells them. 

“Yeah.” Dak sighs, “Does it snow here?” 

“Sometimes.” Mala responds, “Only when it gets really cold, and most of the time the snow doesn’t last.” 

“Just be happy we don’t have the weather berk does.” Dagur tells the three teens, “They’re winters are extremely worse.” 

“Winters in Huttsgalor weren’t as bad, I think our worst one was last year.” Axel explains, “And that was only because dragons worsened it.” 

“Chillbert and his kids.” Dak cuts in. 

“Hmm?” Dagur asks. 

“It was baby chillblaster dragons that caused the winter.” Leyla explains, “Because their father, Chillbert, was sick and sneezed out of the sky.”

“I don’t see how that would cause a winter, though.” Mala tells them. 

“The babies blew wind into the town, which caused a snowstorm to form multiple times.” Dak explains. 

“That makes even less sense.” Dagur tells them. 

“It’s fine.” Mala responds.

---

Later in the day, the twins were working on something together leaving Mala, Dagur, and Axel in the living room alone. Axel was reading something he borrowed from the library on the island, with Dagur and Mala talking quietly. 

“Axel.” Mala starts. 

“Yeah?” Axel asks, looking up at the two adults. 

“We wanted to talk to you about something.” Dagur tells the teen. 

“Okay,” Axel responds, closing his book and looking at the adults. 

“Last night you were talking about your family,” Mala starts, “And they really seemed to not care much about you.” 

“They didn’t.” Axel responds, “I tried to make them want me around, but it never worked.” 

“Well, what would you say if after we catch your uncle you don’t go back with him.” Dagur starts, “Or back to your old home.” 

“What do you mean?” Axel asks the adults.

“We are wondering if you’d like to stay here.” Mala tells him, “Of course it your-” 

“Yes.” Axel cuts the woman off, “Yes, I would love to stay here.” 

“Okay,” Dagur smiles at the boy. 

“Great,” Mala tells the boy. 

---

Gunnar and Drago were walking through their camp, the hunters were building stuff around them and Magnus was in the forge working with belizum. 

“Magnus!” Drago yells, getting the man’s attention. 

“What now?” Magnus asks. 

“How’s the machine going?” Gunner asks. 

“It’ll be better if you didn’t ask me every 5 minutes.” Magnus responds. 

“What was that?” Drago snaps at the man. 

“Nothing.” Magnus mutters, “I should be done in a few days.” 

“Do it quicker.” Gunnar tells him. 

“Do you want it to work or not?” Magnus asks, getting a nod out of the man, “Then I'll work at my own pace.” 

“Fine, this better work.” Drago tells the man. 

“No idea how you want me to find these crystals.” Magnus mutters, “Those twins are the only ones who know where to find them.” 

“Well, you know the area.” Gunnar argues, “And if you can’t find them then we’ll go to plan b.” 

“Got it sir.” Magnus tells the brothers turning back to his work. 

Notes:

Axel gained two parents, and three siblings because of Gunnar

Chapter 16: Familial Bonds

Summary:

Family meetings

Notes:

sassy Axel and Leyla's return

It was a few days later, the dragon riders were planning a meeting on Defenders of the Wing, which included Huttgalor and the wing maidens. Hiccup thought it would be best to tell the wing maidens about Gunnar and his hunters in case he attacked again and Duggard didn’t really know anything about Gunnar or anything that was going on with him. 

It was only the 5 of them still, the meeting was going to be held in the middle of town and the dragon riders were going to stay the night leaving the next morning. 

“Good morning.” Dak greets walking into the living room. 

“Morning.” Axel replies, “You were sleep talking again.” 

“No I wasn't.” Dak argues 

“You definitely were.” Leyla cuts in. 

“And how would you know?” Dak asks her 

“I was up late.” Leyla responds.  

“Since when do you stay up late?” Axel asks her. 

“I was only up late because I was updating my dragon diary.” Leyla answers, the three teens had gone to the library on the island. Leyla and Axel both brought some books home, the books Leyla borrowed were about dragons that are around the island while Axel’s were short stories. 

“That makes more sense.” Dak laughs, “You don’t care about anything else when it comes to knowledge.” 

“That’s not true.” Leyla argues. 

“Remember when you almost got hit by a fire blast while attempting to figure out what type of dragon kept attacking the town.” Dak counters. 

“Dang it you’re right.” Leyla mutters. 

“Always am.” Dak chuckles. 

“Since when?” Axel asks. 

“Hey-” Dak responds. 

“Okay, okay.” Dagur starts cutting into the teen’s conversation, “The dragon riders should be here soon if you guys want to help Throk set up.”
“Let’s go.” Dak yells at the other two. 

“Do we have too?” Axel asks the teen. 

“Yes.” Dak answers, grabbing Axel’s hand pulling him up. 

“Aw man.” Leyla complains following the other two. 

Throk was in the middle of town with a few others, setting up chairs. Dak was in front of the two other teens who were walking slower. 

“How does he have so much energy?” Axel asks the girl. 

“I have no idea.” Leyla answers, “He's always had this much though.” 

“Come on you slow pokes!” Dak yells back at them. 

“I still can’t run, Dak!” Leyla yells back. 

“Excuses!” Dak responds. 

“I’m going to tackle you!” Leyla yells at the boy. 

“Sure you will.” Dak responds to her. 

Leyla doesn’t respond and the three of them start helping Throk set up the meeting. It wasn’t long after when people started arriving, Heather and Fishlegs arrived first based on the fact Berserker island was closer to defenders of the wing. 

“Hey Throk.” Heather greets. 

“Hello, Heather.” 

“Are we the first ones here?” Fishlegs asks. 

“Yep.” Leyla answers. 

“How's your leg?” Heather asks the girl 

“Fine.” Leyla responds, “Still can’t run though.” 

“Oooh I’m sorry.” Heather replies. 

“It’s fine.” Leyla sighs. 

“Do you guys know who else is coming?” Fishlegs asks the teens. 

“No idea honestly.” Dak answers, “Other than the dragon riders we’ve already met.” 

“I think Atali might be coming.” Throk cuts in. 

“Who’s that?” Axel whispers to the twin next to him. 

“No idea.” Leyla responds. 

“Your mother knows her.” Heather tells the teens. 

“Oh, that still doesn’t help.” Leyla replies. 

“She’s technically your aunt.” Throk tells the girl, 

“What?” Dak asks the older man. 

“Not biologically, but her and Mala are really close.” Throk explains. 

“Hmm.” Leyla mutters. 

“You’ll like her.” Heather tells her niece and nephew, “She, well actually I’ll let you find out when she gets here.” 

“Concerning but okay.” Leyla responds. 

“She doesn’t live too far from here,” Throk explains, “If anything she’ll be the next one here.” 

“Got it.” Dak responds. 

“Incorrect.” Marena cuts in. 

“Holy!” Fishlegs yells, jumping back, “Where did you come from?” 

“Classic Marena entrance.” Dak and Leyla say in sync. 

“That is not an answer!” Heather yells, “Where did she come from?” 

“There’s no way to explain it.” Dak answers, “She kinda just appears.” 

“Yep.” Leyla mutters. 

“I can tell you embarrassing stories of the twins to make up for it.” Marena suggests. 

“No,” Dak responds looking over to the woman, then his aunt, “No.” 

“Let’s wait until everyones here.” Heather responds, “Better storytelling with more people.” 

“No no no no no.” Leyla tells the adults. 

“Great idea.” Marena compliments, ignoring the girl’s complaints. 

“I can tell stories too.” Axel tells the adults. 

“You tell stories about us, I tell stories about you.” Leyla threatens. 

“Worth it.” Axel responds, “I have a really good one.” 

“Maybe I’ll tackle you instead.” Leyla mutters, making Dak burst out laughing. 

“Sure you will.” Axel responds. 

---

It wasn’t long after when Minden and Atali arrived, “Hi,” Dak greets from where he was sitting with the rest of the RR. 

“Hello.” Atali responds, “Is your mom around?”

“She’s inside.” Leyla answers. 

Miden looks over at the sleeping dragons she hadn’t seen before, “Are you three dragon riders?” 

“Yeah.” Dak answers. 

“Wha- You know what that makes a lot of sense.” Miden mutters. 

“They definitely are Dagur and Mala kids.” Atali adds in. 

“Speaking of that tonight Marena is so kindly going to tell us stories of the twins.” Heather tells the two women. 

“We did not agree to this.” Dak cuts in. 

“Doesn’t matter.” Marena responds, walking over the wing Maidens, “Hello, I’m Marena.” 

“Hi, I’m Atali and this is Minden.” 

“Hi.” Minden greets, turning back to the group, “So how long have you guys been dragon riders?” 

“Since we were two.” Leyla answers. 

“You went missing when you were two?” Atali asks. 

“Exactly, we were saved by a dragon who raised us.” Dak explains 

“Now they’re show offs when it comes to calming down a dragon.” Axel adds in laughing. 

“You can’t do it like we can.” Dak tells the teen. 

“That’s because you have an advantage.” Axel responds. 

“What’s the advantage?” Atali asks. 

“We can understand what dragons say.” Leyla answers. 

“First that’s not possible, second how would you be able to do that?” Miden asks. 

“It’s possible for them.” Axel responds, “To be fair they like going against what should be possible.” 

“So how can you understand dragons exactly?” Atali asks. 

“We were raised by a dragon, so we can understand what they say.” Dak explains. 

“I still don’t understand how that is possible but I’m not going to argue it.” Miden tells the two. 

“That’s probably for the best.” Leyla responds. 

“Knowing Leyla.” Axel adds in. 

“What do you mean by that?” Leyla asks. 

“You argue with everyone about anything.” Dak explains, “It’s kinda ridiculous.” 

“I only do it when they’re wrong.” Leyla responds. 

“Still doesn't help.” Axel chuckles. 

“She’s a little too much like Mala.” Minden mutters. 

“Yep.” Throk assures. 

“Who’s like Mala?” Hiccup asks, him and the other dragon riders had arrived while the others were talking. Zephyr, Nuffink, and Valka were also there standing to the side watching. 

“Leyla.” Heather responds. 

“Oh she’s exactly like Mala.” Astrid responds. 

Snotlout walks over to Miden who was watching the interaction, “Hey.” 

“Hi.” Minden responds. 

Axel and Leyla were watching the two adults while they talked, “Is he trying to flirt?” 

“Trying is the word of choice.” Leyla responds. 

They watch for a minute more before Axel talks again, “This is getting sad.” 

“Yep.” 

“Snotlout!” Hiccup yells, getting the man’s attention, “We’re going to go get firewood for a bonfire and you are going to help.” 

“Do I have too?” Snotlout asks. 

“Yes.” Hiccup responds, walking away with a few others. 

“Thank thor that’s over.” Axel laughs. 

“Right.” Leyla mutters. 

“We’re telling stories of the twins tonight.” Heather tells Astrid. 

“Still didn’t agree to that.” Dak grumbles. 

“Still doesn’t matter.” Axel responds. 

“Can anyone tell a twin story?” Tuffnut asks. 

“Do you even know any twin stories?” Axel asks. 

“Yeah, you guys are going to love it.” Tuffnut explains, “It’s about the twin’s first swear words.” 

“What?” Leyla asks. 

“That one is a funny one.” Throk cuts in. 

“Other than Mala planning the twins and Snotlout’s death.” Astrid adds in

“Marena, what story are you going to tell?” Leyla asks cautiously. 

“I don’t know yet.” Marena responds. 

“Do you have a lot of stories?” Nuffink asks the woman. 

“Yeah,” Marena responds. 

“If I could make a request.” Dak starts, “You should tell the Hooganboo story first.” 

“I thought you didn’t want the stories told.” Zephyr asks. 

“I don’t, but she’s going to tell them anyway.” Dak answers, “There’s no arguing with Marena.” 

“Have you ever tried to argue with her?” Nuffink asks. 

“Ley did once.” Dak responds, “It was not her brightest idea.” 

“What happened?” Zephyr asks. 

“She threatened me and we never argued again.” Leyla answers. 

“Seriously?” Zephyr asks. 

“Yep.” Leyla responds. 

“Oh my.” Nuffink mutters, looking over to the older woman, “She is so cool.” 

“We should tell Marena stories.” Dak suggests, “I know a lot of those.” 

“I did not agree for my stories to be told.” Marena responds. 

“Neither did we.” Leyla argues. 

“Did we just talk about why they shouldn’t argue with her?” Nuffink asks Axel. 

“Yep.” Axel responds, “I honestly don’t think she cares.” 

“She definitely doesn't.” Dak cuts in. 

“She can’t kill me if I almost died recently.” Leyla tells them. 

“I don’t think it works like that, Ley.” Dak responds. 

“It definitely doesn’t.” Axel adds in. 

“Again I don’t think she cares.” Zephyr mutters. 

“So what kind of stories do you have on Marena?” Nuffink asks the teens. 

“A lot,” Dak responds, “There’s the golden dragon, pirate island, Odin’s gem, HooganBoo and probably more.” 

“Golden dragon?” Fishlegs asks, walking back with the rest of his group who were getting firewood. 

“You mean the dragon that only lays an egg every one hundred years?” Hiccup asks, “Which happens to be made of solid gold.” 

“You’ve seen one?”Fishlegs asks, finishing the questioning. 

“Yep,” Leyla responds, “Gemma and Leif.” 

“We saved them from pirates.” Dak explains. 

“That is so cool.” Nuffink says in aw, “That should be a story we get told.”

“I agree.” Hiccup cuts in. 

“That’s because you want to know more about the golden dragon.” Snotlout argues. 

“So what if I do?” Hiccup asks, “This dragon is interesting.”

“Of course it is.” Snotlout grumbles. 

Dagur and Mala come out to join the group after a while, Nuffink runs over causing Dagur to put his nephew up on his shoulders. 

“Is everyone here?” Mala asks. 

“Is Chief Duggard coming?” Dak asks. 

“He should be.” Dagur responds. 

“Then no, not everyone is here.” Leyla answers. 

“They’ll probably be here soon.” Mala sighs. 

“They?” Atali asks. 

“Finn and his mom are coming as well.” Mala explains. 

“Why did you tell us?” Dak asks. 

“We thought it would be better as a surprise.” Dagur responds. 

“No offence dad but your surprises aren’t usually good.” Leyla responds. 

“Hey.” Dagur responds, “Offence taken.” 

“Sorry.” Leyla responds. 

“She doesn’t sound sorry.” Nuffink cuts in from Dagur’s shoulders. 

“She definitely isn’t.” Dak laughs. 

“I’m not a good surprise?” Finn cuts in, pretending to be offended. The three of them from Huttsgalor had arrived at the docks not long before, 

“I never said that, I said dad sucks at surprises.” Leyla responds. 

“Hmm.” Finn responds. 

“So what are we starting with?” Minden asks changing the subject. 

---

They had finished the meeting and now were sitting around the fire telling stories. Somehow Axel found out about Arno’s Carnival story and started telling it much to the twins' dismay. 

“Leyla and Dak were in the circus.” Axel randomly says, getting the group's attention. 

“Wha-” Hiccup starts. 

“First it was a carnival not a circus.” Leyla interrupts. 

“Same thing.” Axel argues. 

“No, it isn't.” Leyla responds. 

“Second, how did you find that out?” Dak asks, “We only told Duggard.” 

“You guys don’t tell stories quietly.” Axel responds. 

“Duggard told you.” Dak argues. 

“Yeah.” Axel responds. 

The twins turn to face the chief, “Sorry.” 

“Mhm.” Leyla responds. 

“Continue this story please,” Nuffink asks. 

“I don’t know the rest, all I knew was the beginning.” Axel responds. 

Nuffink turns to the twins with a puppy eye look on his face, “Fine,” Leyla sighs, “We’ll finish the story.” 

“Yes!” Nuffink yells. 

Dak and Leyla finish the story. Axel started much to both of their dismay, after they were done Tuffnut stand up to start telling a story. 

“This story takes place 10 years ago,” Tuffnut starts dramatically, “We were trusted to babysit Dak and Leyla.” 

“You were actually the last resort.” Dagur cuts in. 

“We were the first choice, Mala and Dagur went with Throk to the northern markets leaving us with Dak and Leyla. It was getting later so we were all in the house,” Tuffnut continues. 

“And the Nut twins were being idiots,” Snotlout cuts in. 

“So we accidentally knocked down a shelf causing Snotlout to swear forgetting the twins were in the room, which caused Dak to start mimicking him.” 

“Then Snotlout swore again, this time Leyla mimicked him.” Ruffnut adds in. 

“We were hoping the twins would forget the words by morning but they didn’t and Mala found out almost killing us all.” Snotlout continues. 

“And that’s the story of the twins' first swear word.” Tuffnut finishes. 

“Oh thor.” Axel sighs. 

“That was chaotic.” Leyla mumbles. 

“That’s those three for you.” Dagur responds to her.

“They concern me.” Axel mutters. 

“You and Me both.” Leyla replies. 

---

Gunnar and Drago were in the front of a ship, sailing towards the area the alpha crystals should be in. “Do you think Magnus can even find them?” Gunnar asks his brother. 

“No idea.” Drago sighs, “His smarts are really on and off.” 

Magnus was on the lower deck finishing his machine he was working on, it was a mechanical dragon that was made for the water. A nicer version than the one he made before, working much better. The entire thing was made of Belzuim with a glass hatch to keep the water out. It had claws as well to grab the alpha chrystals if he could even find them. 

Magnus still didn’t know where he was looking for the crystals but the two brothers were making him go down either way, and he definitely wasn’t going to argue with them. 

“Is it ready Magnus!” Drago yells down at him. 

“Almost.” Magnus responds, screwing on the last pieces. 

“Prepare to drop the machine!” Gunnar yells to his men. 

The two brothers walk down towards the builder, who was now standing up to turn towards them, “It’s done.” 

“Good.” Drago responds, walking over to the machine, “How exactly does this work?” 

“It just helps go deeper in the water.” Magnus explains, “To hopefully find the Alpha Crystals still no clue how you want me to find them.” 

“You’ll figure it out.” Gunnar responds. 

“Or what?” Magnus asks. 

“You don’t want to know.” Drago responds.

Notes:

Marena is now that random aunt that got added into the family cause why not

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 4 of What if.... Httyd