"So tell me, what what is a young Targaryen princess doing all the way out here?" Queen Mala asked Ash as she was handed a plate of food. "With dragon hunters?" 

"Forgive me your majesty, but they're not dragon hunters." Ash said  as she picked up a funny looking chunk of meat off her plate. "They are the farthest thing from hunters, I promise."

"Are your parents aware of your whereabouts and who you are with?" Mala asked as someone came to pour some water into a  cup and handed it to Ash. "Because I don't think your mother, the dragon queen, would want you to be with people who enslaved dragons to do their bidding."

Ash dropped the piece of meat and frowned. "My parents know very well where I am and who I'm with. And if you're going to be talking to me, I'd like to ask some questions you should answer. Like, how do you know about my family?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"How do you know about us? No one in or outside the Barbaric Archipelago knows we exist, which made it easy for my family to hide in this part of the world."

Mala looked to Throk, who looked back to the queen before she looked back to Ash. "A few years ago a group of people came to our island seeking shelter, they were all cold, wet and close to starvation. My mother, who was queen at the time  gave them food, blankets, medicine, and offered to let them stay on our island. The one leading them, a young woman with bright red hair said they couldn't stay, but asked for our help in looking for an island to live on and looking for three members of her family who were separated from them. The woman told us that her cousin and his wife were in danger and trying to keep their newborn daughter safe."

"Wait...did the woman tell you her name?" Ash asked and Mala shook her head.

"Sadly no, but she told us her cousin and his wife were from a family who rode dragons, his wife was called the mother of dragons. She told us when she saw how we protected and respected dragons, said that her cousin-in-law would have loved our home."

"Red hair...oh my gods Sansa was here." Ashe murmured.

"My mother promised the woman that if we ever saw someone with silver hair or violent eyes and had a strange name, we'd help protect her and make sure nothing happens to her." Mala said with a small nod. "That is why we had to separate you from the dragon hunters. If they knew who you were, they wouldn't hesitate to hand you over to Viggo."

"Well I'm not in danger, I can fight for myself and the people you're trying to protect me from are my friends." Ash said as she stood up from her seat. "Give them a chance to prove themselves innocent, I promise they're good people. They're on the same side as you are in this war with Viggo."

Mala and Throk looked to each other again with skeptical looks.

"Please, believe me! They're innocent until proven guilty!"

"Very well then, we'll give them a small trial. But if they are 'friends to dragons' like they claim they will, they'll be judged by the dragons we keep here on our island." Mala agreed with a nod. "But if they're guilty, you will have to stay here and bring your family back here where we can keep you all safe until we find the rest of your parents family."

🐲🐲🐲

All the villagers had came to see the trial that was being held in the middle of the village square where the large statue of that strange stone dragon stood. Ash stood next to Mala's throne as the seven accused teens stood in front of them. 

"You stand accused of being dragon hunters, subjugators of dragons, do you deny this?" Mala asked as Hiccup walked forward.

"Yes." He replied loudly and looked to Ash, who gave him a thumbs up.

"But you admit that you forced the dragons to carry you on their backs."

"We don't force them."

"And that you used them to land secretly on our island."

"Yes, but you make it sound worse than it was."

"So you weren't caught my men sneaking toward our village."

"Sneaking is a strong word."

"And you didn't come heavily armed."

"Those are for self defense."

"Oh so you came here expecting a fight!"

"No no, you're twisting my words!"

"This trial isn't going anywhere is it?" Ash muttered to herself as Tuffnut walked forward. "Oh no that's not going to end well."

"Tuffnut Thorston, attorney of things." Tuffnut said holding up his hand to silence Hiccup. "We are the defense your queeness."

"Tuff, don't you even start!" Ash groaned but he ignored her.

"Did we sneak onto your island? Perhaps. Did I eat a coconut?"

"Maybe!" Ruffnut yelled.

"Since when is sneaking around on someone's property without permission, trespass?"

"For the record, this person does not represent me!" Hiccup interjected, to which Ash nodded.

"Believe me, he does not." She whispered to the queen.

"And maybe we do make the dragons do whatever we say, and go wherever we go and want to go whenever we want and they carry us on their backs, and obviously keep them in cages," Tuffnut rambled on and Ash had to restrain herself from throwing herself at him and covering his mouth. He was literally making their group sound like they were dragon hunters. "But does that mean we subjugate them?"

"Subjugate them we do not!" Ruffnut added loudly.

"That's what it means..." Ash muttered to herself and Tuffnut gasped.

"Why do we do that? It's terrible!" Tuffnut exclaimed. "And take our leader, Hiccup Haddock the third, a man who shot down Toothless and crippled him so that he could only fly with Hiccup, subjugating him."

Ash could already see Mala's hands curling into fists and anger in her dark green eyes. She knew she had to do something, but what could she even do to help her friends in this trial without getting them in more trouble?

"Look, until a few years ago we fought dragons, but since then we've learned to live in harmony with them." Hiccup stated when Tuffnut walked back to the others. "And yes we ride them, because the allow us to! But the most important thing for you to know about us, is that we hate the dragon hunters and everything they stand for. Heck we even have the daughter of the mother of dragons fighting beside us with a dragon from her homeland, and she can vouch for us that we have been telling you the truth!"

Ash smiled to herself as the crowd murmured amongst themselves at Hiccup's statement. Her eyes met his and she flashed him a smile and gave him a small thumbs up before putting her hands down.

"We are moved by your sincerely and passion Hiccup Haddock." The queen said as she rose from her throne and walked forward. Ash noticed she was holding something behind her back that looked like a roll of paper. "But just one question. If you despise Viggo as you say, why do you hold a map written in his hand and carrying his signature?"

Ash gasped as the queen unrolled the map Hiccup had brought back from his meeting with Viggo. The guards must have confiscated it from the saddlebags them when they were all knocked out, and now it was in the hands of the queen.

"I find you all guilty, and I sentence you all to the same fate that befalls all dragon hunters!" Mala announced. "The Nest!"

"Your majesty, please I can explain that!" Ash yelled as she hurried down the steps of the throne as guards grabbed her friends. "Please listen to me, I can explain why they have the map!"

"I don't need any explanations princess Ashaeya, their sentence has been handed to them and it will be carried out quickly." Mala stated as she handed back the rolled up map to Throk. "No more will you not your dragons be trapped with these hunters. Once they are executed I will give you a ship and a handful of my best warriors to accompany you and Throk to wherever your family is to make sure you can all return here safely."

"No please just listen-"

"That's enough for now." Throk interrupted as he blocked Ash's way. "Come, you'll want to see the execution."

🐲🐲🐲

They were led to a large cave in the mountains where Mala said the Nest was at. Both Toothless and Storm, who had broken away from the other dragons to accompany their riders, followed but were blocked.

"It's okay boys, they'll be fine." Ash assured them when the two dragons tried getting past the guards forcefully. "We'll be out soon, I promise."

As they were led into the cave, Ash could hear the sounds of dragons and saw several nesting in alcoves along the inside of the cave, looking calm and content. So this was why it was called the Nest, and if the punishment involved dragons, perhaps her friends could prove to Mala their innocence? No dragon hunters would ever resort to using the tactics they used in befriending dragons, so it could prove useful when Hiccup was thrown to whatever dragon the queen thought to use to punish him.

'Please dear Odin let him prove that they're the good guys.' Ash prayed as they got close to what looked like a deep pit with bones scattered around inside. 'Please, please let it be a dragon Hiccup knows how to train, please!'

"We protect the dragons as they protect us. We accept the judgement of the dragons as they have accepted us." Mala said as they were lined up around the pit. "Step forward and receive that judgement."

"I'm the leader, I'll go first." Hiccup announced, holding his hand up and walked forward.

"Hiccup, good luck." Astrid said softly and he looked back at them with a reassuring smile.

"Be careful little brother, I have faith you'll be judged fairly by whatever dragon is in there." Ash said giving him a small nod. "May the Warrior watch over you."

"I'll be fine." He assured them as Throk pushed him again towards the pit.

"So he can train any dragon?" Heather asked Ash and Astrid as they watched Hiccup be pushed to the pit.

"Except for a few." Ash admitted.

"Whispering Deaths, Changewings," Astrid added.

"And Speed Stingers." Hiccup added loudly as the familiar screech of a dragon Ash never thought she'd have to hear again. Hiccup was shoved forward and fell into the pit with a loud yell.

"Hiccup!" Both girls ran forward, only to be stopped by Mala, who held her sword out to block them from going too close to the edge of the pit. They could only watch in horror as their friend got up and approached the dragons with his hand out.

"What is he doing?" Mala asked as Throk restrained Astrid from throwing herself into the pit.

"Perhaps he's offering himself as an easy kill." Throk suggested.

"Perhaps, a cowards way to avoid suffering." Mala scoffed and Ash felt her blood start to boil.

Hiccup was dodging the stingers to avoid being paralyzed and Ash could only watch. 'Damn it all, if they're not going to listen to my words, I'll make them listen with my actions.'

"Hiccup!" Ash yelled as she shoved Mala to the side and leapt into the pit. The Stingers growled loudly as they turned their attention away from their prey and darted towards the new human. Ash darted out of the way, using her thick bracers to block the dragons stingers and dodging their attacks. Two had remained with her while the other one decided to go for Hiccup, who had been attempting to distract the three Stingers from Ash.

There was a loud roar as two dark shapes leapt into the pit and placed themselves between the two humans and the three dragons. Both Storm and Toothless stood in front of their riders protectively and growled loudly at the Stingers. One decided to be bold and tried leaping at them, only to get smacked with Toothless' powerful tail and scampered away when Storm hissed and spat a small spark at it. The other two immediately swamped back into the dark, defeated.

"Good boy!" Ash whispered as she gave her Skrill a quick hug and mounted her dragon. Hiccup did likewise with Toothless and both dragons flew out of the pit and landed in front of Mala.

The guards immediately moved in to defend their queen, giving the other dragon riders the chance to attack and disarm the guards to give themselves the upperhand.

"Stop them!" Mala yelled as Throk and the other guards who weren't attacked whirled around to attack. Stormfly came charging in with a loud squawk and landed in front of the other riders, her spiked tail held up and the spikes sticking out, ready to be shot at anyone who dared to come close to her rider.

"Yeah I'm thinking no." Astrid replied sarcastically.

"Mala you need to ask yourself, would these dragons risk their lives to protect us if we were hunters?" Hiccup asked.

"Give the order my queen,and I shall obey!" Throk snarled as he pointed his weapon at Hiccup.

"Hiccup is right, if the dragons were being abused by these riders they would never have came on their own." Ash agreed and gestured to the Nadder and Night Fury. "You listen and trust the judgement of dragons, then accept the judgement of our dragons. They are not your enemy!"

Mala looked at them quietly as the two riders raised their hands above their heads in a gesture of defense. "Stand down." She ordered. "The dragon judged them innocent Throk, release them, release them all."

"Thank you." Hiccup said with a small smile as the queen walked to them. 
"You are a mystery Hiccup Haddock, I can see why the Targaryen princess chose to side with you." She said as she knelt between Striker and Toothless. "But know this, if you are not what you claim to be or if you betray us in any way, I will end you myself, dragon or not."

"Fair enough." Hiccup agreed and looked to Ash.

"You have my word queen Mala, he won't betray you. Hiccup is an honorable man, and he will always keep his promises."

"Just like I promised to help you and your family win your war when this is over." Hiccup said giving her a smile. 

🐲🐲🐲 

"You've all been very good while we were gone, very good!" Ash cooed as she scratched Hookfang and Meatlug under their chins. "Have the Defenders made sure you were okay?"

The dragons growled happily and snuggled against her. Ash heard a snort and turned to see Storm looking away with an annoyed look. Was he...jealous?

"Aww Stormy, come here!" Ash cooed as she got out from the other dragons and walked over to her Skrill to give him a hug. "I still love you ya little thunder farter!"

Storm snorted in annoyance and turned his head away again.

"Oh come on, are you really jealous of a few older dragons? You're never jealous when I'm snuggling your little sisters!"

"You have more than one dragon?" Mala asked as she approached with the other riders. "I suppose that should be expected from you."

"I have three other dragons, all female and this big grumpy blue boy is their grumpy brother." Ash chuckled as Storm rolled his eyes. "Of course, at the moment he is quite jealous that I'm giving chin scratches to a bunch of dragons I knew long before him that stayed behind and behaved themselves."

"Oh they were all well behaved because of this." Mala said holding up a strange green and yellow fruit. "We call this sage fruit, it calms even the most aggressive dragons, makes them easier to handle."

"Which explains our dragons have been so docile." Hiccup said giving his dragon a scratch on the top of his head.

"Can't say the same for Storm, but even when he's relaxed he has that grumpy face." Ash laughed as her Skrill glared at her. "Oh come on, it's true! You're stuck with a grumpy face, and even when you smile you look grumpy!"

"I wonder, would they work on Elin?" Fishlegs asked Ash. "I know she's a calm dragon, but you did say the females of her species were more violent and brutal.

"And the last thing we need is a very moody and upset Elin running around the base." Snotlout added before Heather elbowed him in the gut.

"Possibly, maybe five would do the trick." Ash replied, ignoring Snotlout's remark and took the fruit from Mala to sniffed it. "Yeah I think she'd like this, it  smells very nice. And Elin loves smelling nice things."

"Who is Elin?" Mala asked, looking at the young Targaryen in confusion. 
"Oh she's a dragon I raised since she hatched, she's not from around these parts." Ash explained. "She's a species from my country that my family has been raising and riding for many years."

"I heard they all died out, the last two belonging to your mother." Mala said sadly and Ash nodded. "But it would be a great honor to see the last of the great Targaryen dragons."

"And it'd definitely be an honor for Elin to meet more people who don't want to kill her." Ash chuckled. "She likes everyone, except dragon hunters and some other people." 

"You all have a good connection with your dragons, especially you Hiccup Haddock. I do not understand it, but I cannot deny it."

"Well, maybe if we took you for a ride?" Hiccup offered, gesturing to the saddle.

Mala looked away and glanced up at the strange dragon statue that stood looking over the village before shaking her head and looking back to them. "No, such a thing is forbidden."
 
"Shame, you would have loved riding Elin." Ash said with a shrug. "I always said one hasn't lived a good life as a dragon rider until they've ridden my big blue girl." 

"Uh...your majesty? What dragon is this?" Fishlegs asked, gesturing to the statue. 

Mala's face lit up and smiled. "That is our Great Protector, the Eruptodon." She stated proudly. "He protects our village by eating the lava that flows from the volcanoes, if it weren't for him we would all perish." 

"Well your Great Protector is doing a lousy job of it." Snotlout commented, gesturing behind him. The group looked to where he was pointing and saw the volcano with lava falling down it sides. 

"Oh seven hell's that can't be good." Ash muttered as Mala began ordering the villagers to cut some trees down to stop the lava flow. "Get onto one of our dragons, we'll reach the volcano faster!" 

"No, flying is forbidden, if you're going to be on our island you must abide by our rules." The queen ordered. "I'm afraid the same goes for you princess Ashaeya, no riding your dragon up the mountain."

"Alright it's fine, but the dragons have to come along just in case there is any trouble." Ash said with a nod. 

The two groups and the dragons hurried up the slope of the volcano, hoping to arrive and see nothing amiss. Ash had noticed a lot of offerings like flowers, gold coins and even decorated rocks littering the side of the volcano they were walking up, most likely offerings and gifts for the dragon that protested the island. She smiled and recalled her mother telling her how before she was born, before their home was taken away, some people used to do the same for the two great dragons of the house Targaryen. Elin would probably have loved to have gotten shiny offerings, since she always loved snatching anything shiny that wasn't nailed down and hiding it in random places in the house or in the huts of her friends when she was little. Perhaps the people of Westeros would give her gifts like that when they freed them. 
When they reached the top of the top of the volcano the area was empty, no dragon looking like the one in the village in sight.

"The Protector is gone!" One of the guards who accompanied them gasped.

"Mala, does the Eruptodon leave this place at all?" Ash asked the queen, who was staring at the empty space in horror.

"No, he never leaves this place. It's his food source." Mala replied shaking her head. "He would never leave if the lava started to overflow and make it's way down to the village."

"But if he never left, why is he gone?" Hiccup asked and turned to Astrid when she called out to them. In her hand was a familiar looking red arrow with a green tip on the arrowhead, meaning the hunters had been here.

"Oh gods, I should have known!" Hiccup groaned when he realized what had happened. "Viggo used us!"

"He wasn't trying to keep us away from this place, he was using us as a distraction to infiltrate the island and take the Eruptodon." Ash muttered and looked to her friends. "We were just a distraction all along."

"I should have known, I shouldn't have trusted any of you." Mala said in a hurt voice as she picked up another hunter arrow near her feet, clutching it tightly until it snapped in her hand. The sorrowful expression on her face was now replaced by a furious one as she gave Hiccup a murderous look. "I warned you Hiccup Haddock, I warned you not to betray me or my people in any way."

"Mala wait, we were tricked too!" Hiccup protested as the guards pointed their weapons at him and the other riders. "We were all tricked by Viggo!"

"Silence Hiccup Haddock!" The queen snapped. "You have served your master well, without the Eruptodon to protect us the date if my village is sealed, but so is yours."

"But Mala-"

"I warned you what would happen if I found out you were lying to me, your people are going to die for what you've done. But first Hiccup," Mala drew her sword out and stuck it close to the young Viking's neck. "I am going to kill you myself."