"We're leaving bud" called Hiccup as he scrambled down into the cove with a basket of fish. Toothless growled happily as Hiccup reached the ground and allowed Hiccup to scratch his nose before he snatched the fish off of him and flew away to eat them. By the time Hiccup had saddled all of their supplies onto Toothless, Toothless had already finished the fish and was staring at Hiccup sadly. "What?" Hiccup asked getting angry "You know that I hate it here, I've wanted to leave for the past 15 years and now I can!" Toothless nuzzled up to him and then tilted his head sceptically. "Okay okay! I can't kill the Monstrous Nightmare, I won't!" Toothless gave Hiccup on of his toothless grins before tossing Hiccup onto his back. "wait, that was all you wanted?" asked Hiccup. Toothless snorted once before launching into the air.

The boy and the Night Fury flew around the island once more before stopping and resting on top of Ravens Point. This had been their favourite place to rest after a hard afternoon of adventuring. Hiccup sat on the cliff edge and watched as the citizens of Berk all trickled towards the arena. How long would it take them to realise he was missing? Did his father already know? Those poor dragons in the arena, how he wished he could free them like he had Toothless. He could learn so much about them.

Toothless nudged him in the back, it was time to go. He took one last look at Berk sadly before mounting Toothless and leaving Raven's Point. They dived down the cliff face and flattened out over the forest between them and Berk. Then Hiccup had an idea. He could free the dragons in the arena! he did not need to conform within the Viking society any more, he was leaving, adjusting the tail fin, Toothless and Hiccup flashed over the top of the village, arriving at the arena just as his father stood up to begin his speech.


Astrid followed Hiccup with ease, flitting invisibly through the trees as he stumbled along with the weight of the fish and other weirdly shaped baskets he was carrying. He was making enough noise to wake Odin! She knew she shouldn't be following Hiccup, but he had been acting so strangely, and now this! dragging half of the towns food through the forest, following an invisible trail as if he had been that way a thousand times. She followed him through the forest until they reached a tree which had been destroyed by something. His trainer maybe? Hiccup turned and headed down the gully as fast as he could. Instead of following him on foot, Astrid turned to the trees. She would get a good view of Hiccup and his trainer, but they would never think of looking for anyone up there.

Astrid scrambled silently through several more trees, keeping her eyes on Hiccup the whole time, until she stopped. There were no more trees! Looking down onto the ground, she saw a part of the forest she had never seen before. A large portion of the forest had sunken into the ground, leaving a lake, large tree roots protruding from the edges and boulders everywhere. It was surrounded by a steep cliff face with the exception of the narrow crevasse Hiccup was now climbing down at that very moment. Astrid growled in frustration as Hiccup reached the bottom of the cove. There was no way she could get down there without him seeing her. She would just have to watch from the trees. she sat down to wait for the trainer and watched as Hiccup went through the supplies, rope, extra clothes, extra charcoal pencils, and enough travel bread, water and dried meat to last at least a month... was he running away? How would he get off the island? As hopeless as the boy was at times, Astrid could not stop herself from worrying about the scrawny, intellectual boy.

Then Astrid noticed the black dragon stalking Hiccup. It was like nothing she had ever seen but somehow she knew that it was a night fury. she flattened herself on the branch, praying that it had not heard her gasp. It was too late for Hiccup, but she might have a chance if she laid here quiet as a mouse. She watched as the night fury crept closer to Hiccup with tears in her eyes. Hiccup stopped what he was doing, sensing something behind him. He turned around just as the nightfury pounced, but Astrid could not bear to watch what she knew would happen next, and jumped down from the tree, sprinting back in the direction of Berk. She had to warn everybody! But in her Panic she did not see the tree root protruding from the ground and tripped over it, which would have been fine if she hadn't hit her head hard on a rock, knocking herself out.

Astrid woke to find the sun was high in the sky, approximately 2 hours since she had lastchecked it. Wait. Two hours? Two whole hours? She tried to remember why she had been running. Oh! She though, the night fury! She jumped to her feet but quickly sank back down to her knees, trying to hold on to her spinning surroundings. It felt like a pair of Vikings were wrestling inside her skull, but still she stood unsteadily

By the time she got back to Berk, everybody was beginning to arrive at the arena, ready to watch Hiccup kill the monstrous nightmare. She pushed through the viking crowd towards stoik, drawing quite a few strange looks.

"Stoick! She called, tears rushing down her face as she reached the bottom of his chair.

"What is it Astrid? What's wrong!"

"Its Hiccup, he..." the rest of her sentence was interrupted by a night fury scream.

"NIGHT FURY!" Shouted Stoick "GET DOWN!" Then the arena's roof exploded, spraying chunks of molten chain over the audience. They were vikings Stoick thought proudly, no screams of terror pierced the smoke caused by the blast, only the sounds of weapons being drawn. Stoick drew his and roared, jumping into the arena to face whatever threat he found, Astrid by his side.