Toothless opened his eyes, revealing a forest-green color. Hiccup, the Viking on his back, smiled as he adjusted his prosthetic foot and moved the tail-fin prosthesis.
"Let's go, buddy," Hiccup exclaimed with a grin.
Toothless roared as he launched himself into the sky at high speed. While flying past the cliffs, both of them looked up toward a storm.
A lightning bolt flashed, and when the light faded, there she was: a white-scaled Skrill with purple spots. Her roar resembled thunder itself. Her name was Lua.
Both lightning-class dragons flew like two torpedoes toward a cliff filled with other dragons and the Vikings riding them:
Astrid and the Deadly Nadder, Stormfly; Snotlout and the Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang; the Twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and the Hideous Zippleback, Barf and Belch; and finally Fishlegs and the Gronckle, Meatlug.
The Night Fury and the Skrill landed together right at the center.
Toothless blasted toward the screen and the title "Dragons: Riders of Berk" appeared. Then the Skrill electrified the letters, changing the title to "Defender of Berk."
o0o0o
This is Berk.
Located twelve days north of hopelessness and a few degrees south of freezing to death. Placed right on the meridian of misery.
But that's not all. We dragons and Vikings once lived in a seemingly endless war.
Until one Viking child showed everyone that we could be friends and companions. Now the Vikings are our allies and ride on our backs. Helping each other. And so it has been ever since.
Lua watched as Toothless arrived with Hiccup on his back and landed to her left. She and eight others were waiting for the last pair to join them.
"Took long enough," she growled at Toothless.
"All for a triumphant entrance," Toothless puffed his chest out a little.
"Show-off," Hookfang growled, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, no you don't. You're not fighting this early in the morning," Stormfly huffed.
"This seems..." Barf started.
"So fun!" Belch finished.
The Zippleback laughed with both heads.
"Come on, everyone, let's drop it," Meatlug tried soothing the tension.
They were all there to train their flight and bond skills, but it was also a competition to see who was the most impressive. Lua didn't have a rider, but she tied with Toothless often. Hiccup sometimes rode her for different training drills, but the Skrill usually flew solo.
"All right, who's first?" Hiccup asked, looking at the other riders.
"ME!" Snotlout yelled as loudly as possible to secure first place.
"Actually, I think—" Fishlegs began, but Snotlout cut him off.
"ME!"
Lua rolled her eyes.
"For Thor's sake in a storm! Just go already!" Astrid ordered, pointing forward.
"Don't worry, we're going, and when we do, Hookfang and I are gonna set the sky on fire!" Hookfang roared happily as he shot into the sky with Snotlout screaming on his back.
"I'll show you real flying!" the Monstrous Nightmare roared gleefully, performing maneuvers at maximum speed.
"And how to torture your rider, too," Lua commented, making all the dragons burst into laughter.
"What is it, girl?" Astrid asked, confused at seeing Stormfly laugh-roar.
"If only the humans could understand us..." Stormfly muttered with a smirk.
After their show, Hookfang landed roughly. Snotlout was panting but also relieved.
"I'm alive?!" he celebrated—then paused. "Of course I'm alive," he added, pretending it was all planned.
"My turn!" Fishlegs said excitedly. "Ready, Meatlug? Let's go!"
Meatlug responded with a cheerful growl. They did a simple lap around the cliffs, but it was already huge for a Gronckle.
"Yes! New personal record!" Fishlegs hugged Meatlug happily, and she gave him a friendly lick.
"Yes! New record!" Meatlug cheered with happy grunts.
"Yes, definitely amazing, Meatlug," Lua smiled at her.
"Aww! Thank you, Lua!" the Gronckle said sweetly.
"My turn!" Tuffnut declared.
"No! My turn!" Ruffnut said, pointing at herself.
"You're the same dragon," Hiccup sighed at their antics.
"Oh yeah." They cracked their knuckles before taking off.
It was a mess, since the twins wanted to go in opposite directions, but luckily their dragon had more sense and worked with himself. Somehow, they returned safely.
"They are..." Barf started.
"So crazy!" Belch concluded.
"We love it!" both heads said.
"We almost died," Ruffnut panted.
"I know... Wanna go again?!" the twins cheered.
"Oh! My turn! Watch and learn," Astrid said confidently. "Let's go."
Astrid and Stormfly performed an award-worthy routine—they trained hard and loved it. The tail flip particularly caught Lua's interest, although she knew she couldn't stay in water or she'd be unable to use her lightning.
They returned flawlessly.
Fishlegs admired them in awe.
"I'd like to see you do that without the dragon," Astrid punched his shoulder hard.
"Ahhh, it's good to show what we work so hard on," Stormfly said proudly.
"Yeah. Looks like this is gonna be easy for us, buddy," Hiccup patted Toothless's head.
"Everything's easy for me," Toothless said smugly.
"Don't be so cocky~" Lua teased as he took off at supersonic speed.
Toothless performed an incredible aerial show—Night Furies were built for flying, after all. He ended with plasma blasts forming ring-shaped explosions.
They landed next to Lua.
"Let's see you beat that," Toothless grinned smugly.
"Seems like another win for us," Hiccup said, petting his neck.
"Not for long." Lua prepared to fly and waited.
She waited for quite a while with her wings outstretched at the cliff's edge.
"So, what are we waiting for?" Ruffnut raised an eyebrow.
Suddenly, Lua jumped, falling straight down. Everyone watched as she shot back upward, the gust from her wings blasting past them. Lua soared toward the storm clouds above. The spines on her back vibrated as lightning danced across her body, charging her with electricity. She roared and spread her wings, releasing bolts in all directions.
Letting herself drop toward the sea, still electrified, Lua weaved in zigzags between the rocks, performing flips. She ended her show by firing four lightning blasts into the sky, proving she could surpass Toothless.
After landing beside him, she saw everyone's stunned expressions.
"Night Fury zero, Skrill one." Now she was the smug one.
"Looks like Lua won this time," even Hiccup was impressed.
o0o0o
The dragons and riders returned to Berk. Lua landed beside Toothless.
"It must be close to three o'clock, right?" Lua tilted her head.
Toothless sniffed the air and sneezed like a kitten. "Yes."
"I'm not standing in their way then." Lua flew up onto a rooftop, knocking off some tiles with her claws.
The village was chaos—dragons everywhere, stealing food, breaking roofs, causing trouble. Dragons would be dragons.
"Hey! Get off my roof!" the Viking below shouted.
Lua looked down and recognized him. She snarled, showing her teeth—not to hurt him, just to draw a boundary. Recognizing her, the Viking backed away quickly. It was the same man who had called her a demon days ago.
Lua groomed herself like a cat. She didn't understand why she did that—maybe she was becoming less human and more dragon.
"Perfect timing," she murmured as a swarm of dragons arrived to use the bathroom right in the middle of the village.
Lua heard a noise and turned to see Toothless joining her.
"Yeah, this spot is better," the Night Fury said, lying down to sunbathe and watch the Vikings.
o0o0o
Lua and Toothless stayed with Hiccup and saw Mildew approaching to complain about the dragons yet again.
"He should look in a mirror. 'Uncivilized,' please," Lua scoffed.
But what she didn't expect was that many Vikings agreed with Mildew
"I think we need limits too," Lua murmured, worried.
"Relax. Hiccup will fix it—he's the chief's son! Future chief!" Toothless assured.
"I hope you're right," she said while watching Hiccup attempt a speech.
"They don't mean harm, they're just dragons being dragons," Hiccup tried to explain.
Stoick put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder, silencing him so he could speak himself.
"If there's a problem, Mildew, I'll fix it," Stoick declared.
"Oh, there is a problem, Stoick! And they all agree with me!" Mildew left with his sheep.
Stoick looked genuinely worried. The people grew increasingly upset. If this wasn't resolved, a new war between Vikings and dragons could break out.
o0o0o
Night fell. Toothless and Lua slept in Hiccup's house. Since Lua didn't have a fixed rider, she stayed with Hiccup until bonding with someone.
"We can't let the dragons run the place... Maybe signs?" Stoick suggested to Gobber.
"Signs? For dragons?" Gobber raised a brow.
"Sounds stupid... And I can't read signs," Lua frowned. She could read, but Viking runes meant nothing to her.
"No! For people," Stoick clarified.
Lua yawned and tuned out of the conversation.
"I'm going to sleep. Coming?" Lua blinked tiredly at Toothless.
"Later. Go ahead."
Lua climbed to Hiccup's room and curled up, warming her bedding with a brief electrical charge. She quickly fell into a deep sleep—hard to wake from.
"Dad... What's going to happen to Mom?" a child's voice asked softly.
"... She's going to a better place," the father replied awkwardly.
The child looked down, then toward the hospital room where her sick mother lay. Neither knew how to move on, both losing their joy a little more each day.
Lua's sleeping expression tensed—she was dreaming.
"... And then Toothless blasted the ice! Freeing him and Hiccup!" a preteen girl said excitedly. "And then Toothless faced the villain's Alpha dragon without fear! His back was glowing! And he became the Alpha after defeating it!"
She was nearly breathless from excitement.
The pale, sick woman smiled at the story her daughter told. They both loved How to Train Your Dragon. It strengthened their bond.
But the moment faded when the woman started coughing violently and the heart monitor blared.
"Mom?" the girl frowned. "Mom?! MOM! MOMMY!"
Lua woke up surprisingly calm despite the nightmare. She stretched and yawned. Hiccup and Toothless were already up—they knew better than to wake a Skrill, unless they wanted her in a foul mood.
She drank water and ate a generous amount of fish for breakfast.
Then she heard chaos outside.
"Chaos this early?" Lua frowned and left the house.
She found an intense mess Hiccup was trying—and failing—to control. Still tired from her dream, Lua had enough of the dragons' nonsense.
Lua let out a thunderous roar so loud every dragon froze in place, intimidated.
"Can you give me ONE minute of peace?! I'm TRYING to wake up!" she snarled.
Slowly, the dragons dropped what they were doing, stopped fighting, stopped stealing food, and calmed down once they saw Lua relax.
"Well... That works too," Hiccup muttered, wide-eyed. He hadn't expected Lua to show that level of dominance.
"Lua?" Toothless approached.
"What?!" she snapped. Toothless jumped back.
"You... you okay?" he asked shyly.
Lua softened her expression and sighed. Even Hiccup relaxed.
"Just had a bad dream," she said, looking upward. "But it doesn't matter."
Toothless frowned.
The Vikings briefly praised Lua, thinking someone had finally taken control of the dragon situation. Hiccup started thinking about a long-term plan—he couldn't picture Lua managing the dragons forever.
"Well, have a good day," Lua said, flying off to stretch her wings.
Toothless watched her go—he needed to stay and help Hiccup.
Lua didn't return that night, worrying Hiccup and Toothless even more.
She chose to sleep outside at the cove where she and Toothless had once been stuck together. She didn't care about the cold or discomfort. She just needed time alone.
She stared at her reflection.
"Great. I can't even cry anymore!" she growled, slapping the water with her tail.
"Of course you can't. Dragons can't cry," a strange voice said.
Lua was startled. A dragon stood before her. He had a long, sharp horn on his snout and chin, a long neck, spines down his back, and spots along his gray-and-red body.
"What are you?" Lua asked first.
"I'm a Hurricane Dragon! And my name is Crooked-Tooth," he said cheerfully. "So, this is Berk? I'm looking for a safe place to live."
"Oh, yes—" Lua began.
"Finally! This is my tenth island! I thought the rumors were nonsense! So do Vikings really get along with dragons here?" He wagged his tail like an excited dog.
"Well, yes—" Lua tried again, but he cut her off with a happy roar.
"But we're not on good terms right now!" she blurted.
Crooked-Tooth tilted his head, confused. "What do you mean?"
"We're having... trouble adjusting. There's a possibility we might be locked in cages—"
"CAGES?! This place is horrible! You shouldn't stay here!" he shouted, snorting hot air.
"Let me FINISH!" Lua snapped, and he fell silent. "It's just a possibility, and it won't happen. You can relax and stay. It's just that..." Lua sighed. "We're causing a lot of trouble for the Vikings. Many aren't satisfied, but they prefer peace over war."
"Ohhh. That makes sense now," Crooked-Tooth nodded. "So what happened? Why were you sad? Why did you want to cry?"
"That's a question I really don't want to answer," she said, looking away. "I remembered something I didn't want to... and it hurts."
Crooked-Tooth gave her a sympathetic look and a gentle smile.
"I get it. I've been through bad stuff too. But what we go through shapes us. We have to learn to live with it and move on," he said.
"But... but how do I forget if it's so hard?!" she paced. "I thought I was over it! But the moment I relax, my mind goes back!"
"I know. It hurts and it's desperate. But listen, little Skrill—everything passes. Someday you'll find something worth fighting for. Something strong enough to face your pain."
Lua smiled faintly.
"You know, for a moment I thought you were annoying," she said.
"What?!"
"But I judged too soon. I'm going to sleep."
She left him and curled up to rest. He watched her for a moment, then lay down too—tired from his long journey.
o0o0o
The next morning, Lua woke up and didn't see Crooked-Tooth anywhere. Either he had stayed or moved on. She went to find her friends and located them in the training arena.
"Lua!" Hiccup gasped when he saw her. "Where were you?! By the gods—Toothless and I spent ages looking for you!"
Even Toothless expressed worry, growling at her. Lua simply gurgled in a dismissive way, acting as if nothing had happened.
"I wonder what that was all about," Tuffnut said, stroking his chin.
"Lua scared all the dragons yesterday! That was awesome!" Ruffnut cheered.
"That? That was nothing! Hookfang could do ten times better!" Snotlout bragged. Hookfang snorted.
"What's wrong with Lua? She's been acting so strange since yesterday morning," Astrid whispered to Hiccup.
"I don't know. But I'll figure it out after training," Hiccup said.
Lua had arrived at step two of training, so Hiccup caught her up.
o0o0o
The riders walked through the strangely quiet village—no dragons in sight. Some dragons had gone defensive after Lua's roar.
"It's so quiet—" Astrid started, then an explosion sounded. "And I jinxed it."
They ran to the scene and found their dragons.
"Stormfly?" Astrid asked. The Nadder just chirped while eating chickens.
"Hookfang?" The Nightmare swallowed fish guiltily.
The dragons had blown up the storehouse.
Stoick emerged, covered in soot. "They ate everything! Nothing left for winter!"
"I warned you, Stoick! But did you listen? No! You left it to some teenagers!" Mildew looked at the riders. "And look what their beasts did! These creatures don't even deserve cages!"
"Dad! I swear I can fix this! We're already training—" Hiccup began, but Stoick silenced him.
"That's enough, Hiccup. How can you control the dragons of the whole village if you can't control your own?" He pointed at Toothless and Lua.
They were eating leftover fish. Lua flicked Toothless with her tail, but Toothless just grunted unapologetically.
"Oh, Toothless, Lua..." Hiccup sighed.
The dragons were to be caged until morning and then sent far from the island.
o0o0o
At night, the riders were locking the dragons in the arena. The dragons stared with abandoned-puppy eyes.
"Don't close it!" Hiccup arrived on Toothless, with Lua behind him. He jumped off and pulled the lever to open the arena. "We're NOT locking up the dragons."
"So? Did you convince your father? Or are you going behind his back again?" Astrid asked.
"One of those. Look, dragons will always do what dragons do. It's their nature—we just have to work with it!"
The riders exchanged confused looks.
In the morning, Hiccup's plan began.
"Snotlout! Scare our dinner!"
"Dragon attack!" Hookfang dove, herding fish toward the net.
"Thanks, dragon!"
Next, Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs helped Mildew farm.
"Three o'clock! Fertilizer time!" Hiccup announced.
"Fertilizer?" Mildew frowned.
A horde of dragons arrived to... use the bathroom.
"Go, Meatlug!" Fishlegs encouraged.
"Cheer up, Mildew! We spared you months of work!"
The twins and Lua herded wild boars to the new barn.
Everyone took a break afterward.
"Incredible! How did you know this would work?"
"Because they're dragons. They do dragon things. We just need to work with them. You know who you should thank?" Hiccup began—but was interrupted by Mildew.
"Look at them. They don't look caged to me."
Lua growled at him.
"No. That's not what I ordered," Stoick's voice boomed.
Lua swallowed hard.
o0o0o
At the arena, Stoick and Gobber were ready to announce something. Unfortunately, the dragons were locked up. Lua hated the darkness.
"You okay?" Stormfly asked.
"Yes... I just don't like the dark," Lua said tensely.
Stormfly nuzzled her gently.
Suddenly, the doors opened and dragons ran to their riders. Lua was the only one left behind.
"Come here, Lua," Hiccup called.
She sprinted to him like an excited dog. Hiccup laughed as she rubbed her head against him.
"You're important too—don't forget," Toothless purred.
"Now you just need to train them," Stoick said.
"No problem, Dad. I have them—Toothless and Lua—and they have each other."
Lua watched Hiccup drawing the dragons and riders that night.
She thought about the day.
We dragons can't change who we are. And why should we? We're special in our own way—strong, amazing. Dragons and riders help restock the village. We just need to learn from our differences.
And you? Would you also learn to live with your dragon partner? Because here, the Vikings would.