"Lyanna is it!" Robert shrieked as he tugged on his sister's dark locks before rushing off with the rest of their siblings. The tween gave a small groan before setting down the sword she had been sharpening and the whetstone before walking after her baby brother.

"Oh I'm coming, I'm coming." Lyanna said in a bored tone as she walked after the triplets. "Beware the Night Queen's touch, blah, blah, blah."

"Lyanna, at least show some enthusiasm." Daenerys called from the laundry line as Jon handed her another sheet to hang up. "You can't spend all day sharpening every sword in the house."

"Well Gobber refuses to leave me unsupervised in the forge while he's at a meeting with Stoick for Thor knows what, it's not like I'm going to cause an accident like Hiccup before everyone took him serious." Lyanna yelled back as one of the triplets swatted her back and darted away before she could grab them.

"Gobber may scoff at safety, but he knows it's best to be cautious." Jon pointed out as he set the basket of sheets down to help his wife adjust them.

They heard a loud roar and all eight of them turned towards the cliffs to see a familiar blue dragon land close to their home. The six children gave loud shrieks of excitement before rushing towards the dragon who was allowing her rider to dismount.

"Ash is back! Ash is back!" The younger ones screamed as they ran towards their older sister.

Ash grinned before throwing her arms out and letting the triplets envelop her in a hug before Rickion, Lyanna and Eddard joined in and nearly knocked all of them over. Jon and Daenerys had to hold back a laugh when the group did fall over, Ash at the bottom while the rest of her siblings were piled on top of her.

"Mum! Dad! Get them off!" She yelled, trying to wiggle out from under her six siblings. Storm immediately hurried over and tried grabbing her tunic sleeve to pull her out, only succeeding in tearing it off. "Damn it! And I really liked this one!" Ash groaned when she saw the dark blue cloth dangling from her dragon's jaws.

"Are you finally gonna stay home?" Robert asked eagerly.

"No because I have to actually keep an eye on a bunch of children." Ash responded and her baby brother pouted. He knew by children, she meant the other riders.

"Then we're not letting you get up!" Lyanna announced and Ash glared at her sister.

"I have duties to do! I just swung by to say hello and grab something! Get off me!"

"No!" All six children yelled.

"Muuuum!"

"That's enough, get off your sister." Jon scolded, walking over to yank Rickion off from the top of the pile. "You're all going to suffocate her if you keep that up. And we don't want a dead sister now, do we?"

"It's not fair! She should stay home with us!" Rhaella exclaimed when her mother walked over to pluck her off. "She's been gone for months and probably snogging the Berserker chief!"

"I have not!" Ash exclaimed, her cheeks turning a bright red. "I've been trying to kick the ass of a bunch of dragon hunters who got a leader who's been trying to outsmart Hiccup! And mind you, the Berserker I've apparently even snogging is dead!"

"Oh now that is not good." Rickion commented. "Any luck?"

"Well we had a bit of a lead on a dragon auction somewhere." Ash replied as the last of her siblings were lifted off her back and got to her feet before rubbing her back. "Odin's beard you've all gotten heavy! Has mhysa been overfeeding you? Or have you been sneaking extra helpings again?"

"For your information, I have not." Dany said with a snort. "But the boys have been training with your father lately so I believe they're gaining some muscle."

"And the girls?"

"Training as well, but with Gobber. Lyanna wants to take over the forge if Hiccup doesn't come back."

"Finally, another blacksmith in the family!" Jon chuckled. "Your uncle Gendry will be proud!"

"Well let me go grab what I need, it won't take long."

"Can we go? Pleeeeeease?" Robert begged.

"No, where we're going is no place for a bunch of children." Ash replied and walked briskly towards the house.

"But it's not fair! We're stuck here while you get to have fun!" Robert pouted as he and the rest of the siblings followed Ash into the house.

"Well I have experience in dealing with hunters, and none of you have been properly trained to ride a dragon."

"That's cuz you're the only one who can teach us! Hiccup wouldn't let us close to a dragon when trying to teach us!"

"Because you're all babies!" Ash yelled, whirling around to face her siblings. "You all get into loads of trouble, never listen and always disobey the simplest order! This isn't Alvin or Dagur we're dealing with, the Grimborns and their dragon hunters are far worst that what we've been dealing with three years ago! None of you are coming with me, you'll stay here and that's final! Do you want to give our parents grief if more than one of you comes back in a wooden box?"

The six children stared up at their sister in a mix of horror and fear. Ash shook her head as she ran up the stairs to their room and grabbed some knives off the wall before shoving them into her bag and heading back down the stairs. Daenerys was waiting at the bottom, her eyes narrowed and her arms folded over her chest.

"You didn't have to say all that to your brothers and sisters."

"Well it's the truth! They're not as experienced as me with these sort of things. And if Viggo gets his hands on them, who knows what he will do!" Ash retorted as she pushed past her mother. "You already lost four children, it's not fair to add six more to the list."

"I'll lose five if you walk out that door." Daenerys replied as Jon shut the door behind him to prevent her from leaving.

"I have to do this mhysa, what sort of Targaryen would I be if I let this cruelty towards dragons go unpunished and continue?"

"A live one, who hasn't come home missing an arm or leg."

"I promised Hiccup I'd help him."

"You don't have to." Jon pointed out.

"But I want to, and my friends need me." Ash replied and looked down at the floor. "Dagur gave us this information, we can't just ignore and discard it. I already lost someone to the Grimborns, and I can't bear to lose the others if I don't go."

Ash looked up to see her parents glancing at each other, her mother frowning once in a while as her father kept giving her looks before Daenerys looked away and gave what sounded like a defeated sigh.

"Alright, you can leave. But, you must take your father."

"And what about the whole 'I'd rather not lose another child' argument?"

"Your father is a grown man, he has a good dragon, he knows his battle tactics, he can help you."

"I sure hope he can." Ash muttered.

~~~~~~~~~

"I cannot believe that we lost Berk's gold!" Jon groaned as he and Gobber were flying back to Berk to deliver the disappointing news to Stoick.

"Better the gold an' not any of the teens, especially Hiccup or Ash." Gobber pointed out as he tossed another rock from the chest into Grump's mouth. "Trust me, Dany and Stoick will be more relieved that those two are alive and not dead because they dove into the sea to save a chest of gold."

Jon nodded, knowing full well that the blacksmith was right. Hiccup and Ash nearly drowned trying to retrieve the gold, and they would have if Astrid and Heather hadn't dove in to pull them up while Fishlegs and Meatlug dove in to grab Toothless.

"By the way, how have things been between you and Ash?" Gobber asked. "Lyanna told me ye both got into a nasty row the other day, just a few days after Dagur's death."

"Oh they're...they're fine in a way. That day we fought was because she screamed that Dagur wouldn't be dead if I hadn't despised him so much and she could have brought him to Berk to be safe." Jon confessed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Of all the people in this world my daughter had to fall in love with, he was not the one I was expecting. I don't even know what happened between them that caused her to stop hating him so much."

"Perhaps she realized her dislike for him was childish and that's why she decided to return to save him." Gobber suggested and shrugged. "Stoick and Valka disliked each other with a passion when they were younger, but as time went on they learned to be friends and learned to fall in love. Next thing you know, they're married and wee Hiccup comes along. And you have to understand Jon, Ash is a woman now not a little wee lass anymore."

"I know but I want to protect her, I wasn't able to protect any of my cousins from the dangers of the world when we were younger. I was like their older brother and they were like my baby sisters." Jon sighed, thinking of Arya and Sansa. "The least I can do is protect my oldest daughter and her sisters better than I protected their aunts."

"Ye raised the four of them well Jon, they will make great queens for your country." Gobber assured him and leaned down to pat his friend's arm.