There was another blast of fire. Hiccup turned sharply on the spot. The fire hit far too close to his home. Ignoring the masses of Berserkers ahead of him, he turned and ran back towards his home, listening for the sound he was afraid he wouldn't hear.
A cry. First came the desperate shriek of a baby and then came the terrified scream of "DADDY!"
"Daddy?" Came Dagur's voice from somewhere behind him. Hiccup ignored it and kept running towards the house which was quickly going up in flames. Another yell came from somewhere to his right and he saw Astrid running as fast as her legs would carry her towards a small figure tumbling down the hillside. "Mummy!" The figure cried as they ran into Astrid's open arms.
"Finn! Oh my baby! Are you hurt? Where's...?"
"TOOTHLESS! GET IN THERE NOW! Astrid, keep Finn safe!" Hiccup yelled as he kept running towards the house where a baby was still crying out desperately. Hiccup saw Toothless go into the house through the blaze and the crying ceased. Panicking Hiccup ran faster. As he reached the house, Toothless came out, his eyes wide with fear and shrieking a terrible cry Hiccup had never heard before. It was a cry that shook Hiccup to his very core, it brought tears to his eyes and he knew innately that this cry was one of distress. And he feared in that moment more than he had perhaps ever in his life. He burst into the blazing house and began searching desperately for the baby who should have been there crying.
Worse than the absence of the crying, worse than finding the baby lying there dead... was finding the baby gone. Hiccup tore the house apart, searching everywhere for the baby, the tiny little baby who had been less than a month old.
"No. NO! Where is she? Where is she?!" Hiccup cried, choking on the thickening smoke. He would not give up... not ever. He had to find her, he had to. He'd search until the flames consumed him if he had to.
"Daddy! Daddy where are you?!" Came a small desperate plea from outside the inferno that had been his home. Hiccup hesitated.
"Hiccup? Hiccup please! Don't you dare leave us! We need you, the tribe needs you!" He heard Fishlegs yelling somewhere nearby.
"FINN NO!" He heard Astrid cry.
"But Daddy's in there! Daddy didn't call back to me! He always does! Daddy always comes to me when I cry!" Hiccup coughed, he couldn't leave, but he had a family out there and a tribe who were alive and needed him. His heart breaking he turned and ran out of the blazing building falling in a heap at Astrid's feet.
"Daddy!" Finn cried out throwing his arms around Hiccup's neck and sobbing.
"Shhh, it's ok Finn. I'm here, it's all going to be ok." He clutched his son tightly and picked him up, holding the small child in his arms as he stood up to face Astrid. Her face was covered with soot and her arms were sprayed with blood, her eyes filled with tears.
"The baby?" She whispered. Hiccup held onto Finn tighter, keeping his head buried into his own neck and shook his head very slightly, tears falling down his own cheeks as he looked at her. Astrid began to cry and Hiccup held one arm out and pulled her in close, clutching at what was left of his family as if he would never let them go. He thought about his baby girl... Where could she have gone? The thought was too painful so Hiccup just clung onto Finn and Astrid and made a promise to himself that nothing and no one would ever be able to tear his family apart again.
Somewhere in the distance a young woman hushed a crying baby who had tumbled into the sea after sliding out of the grip of a small dragon. Her own son looked uncertainly at the baby.
"Where did it come from?" He asked, she knew his father would ask the same thing as soon as he laid eyes on the babe. She knew full well where the baby had come from, but her dislike of her husband made her all the more determined that she would protect and love this child as much as her own son. She looked down at the baby who was now staring at her with huge green eyes and knew in a heartbeat, this baby was special. This baby was a sign from the God's. A baby brought to her by a dragon. It was a sign, and she would take it as such.
"She came from the God's." She told her son as Dagur stumbled aboard the boat and stared at the bundle in her arms and his son watching it carefully...