"Hey old boy, missed me?" Ash called as she approached Sleuther with a bucket of fish in one hand and a handful of dragon nip in the other. The Triple Stryke perked up and jumped to his feet, wiggling his large tail excitedly. "Aww, you missed me that much? You look so much like Smudge when he thinks someone is gonna feed him a piece of their food."

Sleuther growled happily as Ash set the bucket and the nip down on the ground and he rushed right over to her, playfully nuzzling her face with his nose. Ash laughs as she hugs his head and presses a small kiss to his forehead. Even before Astrid had managed to tame the dragon, Sleuther seemed to be a lot more friendly to Ash than with the other dragon riders. He always ran up to her with a rather puppy like attitude and was more willing to train with her even after Astrid helped him stop being so aggressive.

"Guess it helps being a Targaryen," Hiccup had joked once when Sleuther had displayed his happy attitude around him when Ash was bathing him. "Even the testiest of dragons turn into softies around you."

"I guess if you keep up with this training, maybe we'll move you into the stables and you can officially be my dragon." Ash says as she moves away to bend down and grab a fish from the bucket. Sleuther growls excitedly, his eyes on the fish in her hand. "Alright boy, ready? Fetch!"

Ash tosses the fish into the air and Sleuther bolts off after it, blasting at it with his orange fire before leaping forward and snagging it out of the air. He seemed quite pleased with himself as he landed, happily slurping up the charred fish before running back to Ash and wagging his tail, eager for more.

"Clever boy!" Ash cooes as she hugs his head. "Oh you are getting better at commands!"

"Wow, he's doing a whole lot better." Ash smiles as she turns to see Heather approaching her with Windshear in tow. Sleuther hisses before Ash delivers a small smack to his forehead to silence him.

"He still needs to get used to being around certain dragons, Toothless he can be friendly with, but I'm still working on getting him used to other wild dragons and breaking up fights he gets into."

"Old habits?" Heather suggests. "He was put into a fighting ring for who knows how long, he still has that fight-or-flight mode switched to fighting."

"Well he certainly doesn't mind being around Elin, Storm, or Sweet Song. Maybe he's just very aggressive around dragons he's fought in those arenas, like Razorwhips and Nadders."

"That could be it. How is he doing with other training?"

"Basic commands? He's perfected it, he's even let me climb onto his back to run around the woods." At the word "run", Sleuther perked up and nudged Ash excitedly. "Oh someone wants to go for a little ride today?"

"He's really grown close to you, it's adorable." Heather giggles at the sight of the dragon's antics as he starts excitedly jumping around her friend. "You think your parents won't mind you keeping him?"

"Well why not?" Ash asks as Sleuther playfully headbutted her back gently. "We've already got like several dragons at home that are just as dangerous as him, but they're perfectly tame around my younger siblings. "Though they're a bit terrified of Rhaella and Rhaena."

"How so?"

"They keep trying to tie ribbons and colorful cloth on their horns and tails to "dress them up". Elin and Storm already had to suffer through it, so did the rest of the gang's dragons, and now Aemon and Pyro and whatever other dragons living near my house suffer through it too."

"Oh my Thor." Heather laughed. "Guess Sleuther is going to get the same treatment too?"

"Probably." Ash laughs as Sleuther growls impatiently. "Alright, alright, we'll go for your run."

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"Oh look Sleuther is finally letting her ride him!" Fishlegs yells as he and the twins watch the Triple Stryke zoom through the air.

"Hey you think he's faster than Toothless or Storm?" Ruffnut asks her twin as they hear Ash give a yelp as Sleuther barrel rolls through the air.

"I'd say he's at a fifteen in speed, we haven't seen him race against either of the other two." Tuffnut replies and flinches when the duo nearly crash into one of the nearby huts.

"Maybe when he gets the hang of flying with someone on his back we can test that." Fishlegs suggest as Sleuther lands rather clumsily near them. "With a saddle."

"That felt like an eighteen speed." Ash groans as she slips off the tired dragon. "Shit...remind me to wear that set of riding trousers my mother made if I was riding bareback for so long."

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"And that's why I love the Berserker Chokehold." Dagur cackles as he drops the dragon hunter he was choking to shut up. "Man this guy is shimpier and wimpier than Hiccup when he was fifteen!"

Shattermaster, who was seated on a pile of unconscious dragon hunters, growled happily as he climbed off them and waddled over to Dagur.

"We got what we needed old boy, why don't we head to the Edge to see how my little brother and sister are doing and tell them the good news?" Dagur said as he scratched his dragon behind the ears. SHattermaster growled excitedly and eagerly wagged his tail. "And maybe...we can see a certain lady who spoiled you last time we saw her?"

Oh that did it. Shattermaster gave out one of his funny noises and wagged his bludgeon tail excitedly at the mention of Ash. Dagur would be lying if he wasn't excited as well to see her again. Ever since he faked his death he wanted to let her know he was alright, and even after Heather and Hiccup found him alive he wanted to let her know personally. He really missed her, and it hurt his heart when Heather told him Ash had been distracted and distant ever since he disappeared like that.

Will she be happy to see me again? He wonders as he climbs onto Shattermaster. Will she be willing to let me into her heart again after how much pain I caused her?

Only one way to find out.

A/N: So...I recently published a new Ash/Dagur story on AO3, bit of a Beauty and the Beast au I had been wanting to write for such a long time. Not sure if I should publish it here. If you have an AO3 and are interested in reading it, it's called Evermore. And if I do publish it here the cover looks like this:

Currently working on the Gold Rush chapter, but at the moment I;'m working on a lot of other things, including this year's Inktober so updates will be a bit scarce and come along randomly