Chapter 1
"Yahoo!" Hiccup cried as she and Astrid raced over the sea around to the Academy. "Come on Bud, we can do it!" she called to Toothless. At that Toothless started to pick up speed. When they got to the Academy, Astrid landed no more than three seconds later. Astrid dismounted Stormfly and gave her a good job touch and stroke.
"You haven't been feeding Stormfly chicken again have you?" Hiccup asked she patted Toothless on the head.
"Why would I do that?" Astrid answered trying to sound innocent.
"I know how competitive you can be and what you will do to win against me and Toothless."
"I would never do that. I only give her chicken as a treat. I promise." Astrid said raising her right hand.
"In any case you two are definitely getting faster and making it harder for the rest of us to keep up." Fishlegs said as he walked up taking note of their latest time. "Oh and Hiccup, Gobber stopped by. He needs you in the forge."
"Guess I'd better head on over then." Hiccup answered climbing into Toothless's saddle. "I'll see you guys later." She said before she flew out of the Academy.
Hiccup and Toothless took their time flying to the forge. These days it seemed like they hardly ever got time to themselves. When they got there, Gobber was outside waiting for them.
"I need you to take this to your father lass. He's on Thornado heading towards Thor's beach. Someone reported a disturbance there earlier." He explained handing Hiccup a large hammer.
"Okay I understand that, but why do I need to bring him this?" Hiccup said trying to lift it.
"Just in case." Gobber replied. "Too bad I have too much work to do here. I would love to see your father use it." Gobber said as Hiccup turned to see the line of dragons and their owners standing by the entrance waiting to have their dragons' teeth checked.
"Okay. I'll just take this to him then." Hiccup said she dragged the hammer and climbed back into Toothless's saddle. "Let's go Bud." Hiccup instructed as Toothless took off. "I can only imagine where this will lead." Hiccup muttered as she struggled to hold on to the hammer and the saddle without falling off or dropping the hammer. "Hard to believe it's been only half a year since you and I met, huh Bud?" She asked. Toothless acknowledged her comment turning his head and smiling back at her.
"So much has happened since then. We started a dragon training academy, we discovered a new species of dragon, got my Dad to ride a dragon, dragons are now part of our end of winter Thawfest games, and then there's Alvin, Alvin now knows that we can ride dragons. No doubt he's probably planning on another way to get the Book of Dragons or me." Hiccup grumbled at the end of her sentence.
Suddenly, Hiccup felt Toothless tense underneath his saddle. "It's okay, Bud. Alvin has tried to take me before, but he's never going to be able to again." Hiccup said hoping to calm Toothless down. But Toothless suddenly banked into the forest and landed deep in the underbrush. "Toothless, what has gotten into you?" Hiccup asked trying not to drop the hammer on Toothless in the landing. Toothless then started to run deeper into the forest. Hiccup, while trying to hold onto the saddle, dropped the hammer Gobber had made for her Dad and held on to the saddle as tight as she could. When Toothless finally came to a stop, he started to nudge Hiccup out of the saddle, and toward a cave on top of a hill.
"Toothless, what are you doing?" Hiccup asked again once they were inside. Toothless then turned around and started to run out of the cave. Hiccup tried to follow, but Toothless blew a fire ball at her feet, telling her not to leave the cave. He then ran down the hill and into the forest. "Toothless." Hiccup said just above a whisper as if in a plea. "What's wrong? Why are you doing this? Why don't want me to follow you?" She asked herself. The questions rattled in her head as she sat and waited for Toothless to come back. "If there's something wrong I can help you Bud. Why won't you let me?"
Presently, Hiccup remembered something Toothless had told her while she was under the Dragon's Bond and could understand him.
"The reason is because dragons protect what they treasure Hiccup, and what I have treasured for the past fourteen years, has been you. You are my treasure and I am willing to sacrifice my life if it meant keeping you safe."
"Toothless, I understand you want to protect me, but if you are in trouble I can help you. You don't have to do this alone. I'm not as weak as I used to be, I can help you." She whispered to herself as if just saying it would bring Toothless back and let him know how much she wanted to help him.
"Isn't that sweet? Unfortunately, it isn't him that needs help but you do." Hiccup heard a harsh, familiar voice say from behind her. She turned to the entrance of the cave and saw Alvin holding a thing of rope, ready to tie her up.
"Now we can do this quietly and no one gets hurt, or…" Alvin turned to the entrance of the cave and Savage came into view holding a chain trying to pull something with him. When Hiccup could finally see what it was, her heart skipped a beat. Toothless was chained up and fighting to get free. But the chains held fast and refused to break. Alvin then turned back to Hiccup. "…you can watch your dragon suffer the consequences of your resistance." Alvin snarled as he got closer to Hiccup.
"I'll go with you, just let Toothless go." Hiccup pleaded.
"You heard the girl. Release the Night Fury, we have no use for him now." Alvin ordered as Savage looked like he was about to give up on restraining Toothless. "Come on now lass, we have a job for you to do." Alvin said with an evil smirk on his face as he led Hiccup away and walked past Toothless who was still tied down by the heavy chains.
Toothless struggled to get free, to fight to the death if he had to to save the one he cared about most. 'NO! I WILL NEVER LOSE MY FAMILY AGAIN!' he cried inwardly, the same cry he put out as he broke free the night Hiccup was struck by Thor's lightning bolt. He fought and struggled until he felt his strength start to fail. "Hiccup, please, if you have any plan to get away from him, please come back to me alive. I could never stand it if I lost you." He gasped as he started to lose consciousness.
