A/N: This is a short one-shot based off the 6th HTTYD book, A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons. Note: a Stealth Dragon is invisible and a bit bigger than a Boneknapper. Story starts at the scene where Hiccup and Camicazi are being chased by Driller Dragons, and Stormfly still hasn't recovered from hitting her head. So she's still loopy.

Tears Of A Night Fury

What am I doing here, thought Hiccup as he ran for his life. Running along side him through the musty library was Camicazi and Toothless. Stormfly was flying in circles above their heads. She still hadn't gained her memory back, and still thought they were playing Hide-'n-Seek with the Driller Dragons that were chasing them. Hiccup was starting to fall behind, his left leg getting sore from all the running and sword fighting.

"Up here!" yelled Camicazi, pointing at a door up ahead. Hiccup and Camicazi made a bee-line for the door, and Toothless grabbed Stormfly and rushed her in.

Inside, Camicazi and Hiccup slammed the door and locked it. The old, rotting door wouldn't stand a chance against a peeved Driller Dragon, so Hiccup, Camicazi, and Toothless started knocking bookshelves over and piling them against the door.

"This is a nice place you've got here, but it's a little too dark for my taste," said Stormfly, looking around the room, still confused. Hiccup looked over at her. He had gotten concussions before (it was an occupational hazard), and the one time he had lost his memory, he had accidentally hit his head again and it came right back. Maybe if she got whacked on the head again...

Hiccup ran to another wall, looking for a good, heavy, hard-cover book. That was when he saw a glint of light from one of the shelves, that resembled daylight. The light was leaking in around one certain book in particular. As Hiccup walked closer, he saw that the book was thick, golden-rimmed and heavy. When Hiccup saw the name of the book, his jaw dropped and he forgot all about the Driller Dragons or whacking Stormfly. The book was called: A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons! And the author was named Hiccup Horrendous Haddock II. What a coincidence.

Hiccup slowly reached out and grabbed the book, pulling it off the shelf.

"What are you doing?" yelled Camicazi. "Get back over here and help... us..."

Her yelling faded when Hiccup took the book off the shelf, something clicked, and a hidden door that was actually the bookshelf itself swung open. There was a narrow tunnel leading outside, and they could see the clear blue sky at the end. Written above the entrance to the tunnel was: "The Dragon Whisperer's Way."

Camicazi and Toothless abandoned the door. Camicazi started to move forwards into the tunnel, but Hiccup put out his arm to stop her.

"What? What is it?" she asked, frustrated.

"Look," said Hiccup, pointing to the dark objects on the floor of the tunnel. There were hundreds of tiny dragons, black in color, all of them sleeping peacefully.

"What?" asked Camicazi. She still didn't see the danger. "They're just tiny little dragons! They can't do anything to us! They're actually kinda cute."

Hiccup laughed nervously. He could hear the Driller Dragons gaining. "Do you have any idea what kind of dragons these are?" he whispered nervously.

"Does anyone but you?"

"Shh," hissed Hiccup. "You do not want to wake them! These are Poisonous Piffleworms! If you get bit, then you have about a quarter of a second to curse your bad luck before you drop dead!"

Camicazi was quiet, staring wide-eyed at the tiny poisonous dragons. Even Stormfly looked nervous now.

"Can't we just try and get around them without waking them up?" she asked.

As if in response, one of the tiny dragons opened its eyes briefly before it opened its mouth and yawned, showing off it's razor sharp incisors. A tiny drop of purple venom dripped from one of the fangs and burnt a hole in the floor.

"What if Toothless and Stormfly killed them with fire?" she asked, hoping her "Plan B" would work.

"And what, risk collapsing the tunnel? Besides, dragons are fireproof. That'd just make them mad."

"So how do you deal with a Poisonous Piffleworm?"

Hiccup knew how to deal with them, but in the panic of the moment, he couldn't remember! And the sound of the Driller Dragons coming down the hallway to the door didn't help his concentration.

Think, Hiccup, THINK!

Hiccup groaned in frustration, and was about to use the book in his hands to hit himself on the head, when he realized what book he was holding. A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons! Piffleworms are deadly, so they should be in here... right?

Hiccup looked back up at the sleeping Piffleworms, at the badly barricaded door, and then back down to the book in his hands. He quickly opened the book.

Apparently, two Piffleworms had burrowed their way into the book, and they were what Hiccup saw the second he opened the book. One of the Piffleworms snarled and lunged for Hiccup's hand. Hiccup dropped the book, accidentally ripping out a page in the process.

The peeved little Piffleworm lunged at Hiccup again and sank its fangs into his left boot, but was surprised when it tasted the metal of Hiccup's prosthetic foot.

Hiccup lurched backwards, pressing himself flat against a bookshelf. The Piffleworm was still on his boot, and was now crawling up his leg to his knee.

"WHISTLE!" shouted Hiccup as he remembered ( a bit too late) what their weakness was.

Camicazi grabbed the small metal whistle that hung from her necklace and blew it as hard as she could. The effect was instantaneous.

The Piffleworm that was about to kill Hiccup (and all the other ones) froze. It went completely stiff and it's mouth flew open, it's fangs sticking straight out into the air. The dragon slowly fell off Hiccup's leg and hit the floor, almost like a little Piffleworm statue.

Hiccup carefully kicked away the frozen dragon, then took a deep breath after seeing his life flash before his eyes. Again.

Suddenly, something rammed into the door. The Driller Dragons!

"Everybody, quick, in the tunnel!" shouted Hiccup.

They all ran into the tunnel, trying to avoid the paralyzed dragons. However, Stormfly seemed to be taking her own sweet time as she meandered over to the entrance. Again, Toothless grabbed her and pulled her in.

"Close the door!" screamed Toothless. But it was too late.

The door to the room burst open to reveal four angry Driller Dragons, the drill-like horn on their heads spinning furiously, creating a high pitched whirring sound. Hiccup and Camicazi desperately tried to pull the door shut, but the Driller Dragons had already seen them.

The largest one charged the half-closed door and slammed into it. The door knocked Hiccup off his feet and hit Stormfly on the back of the head, knocking her out again. When she fell, she was lucky enough not to land on any Piffleworms. Hiccup, however, was not so lucky.

When he fell, he landed next to a large pile of frozen Piffleworms. Trying to stop himself and keep his head from smashing into the stone floor, he threw out his hands, but his right one came down right on a Piffleworm, and it's razor-sharp, venomous fangs stabbed his palm.

Hiccup yelped and realized one very critical thing: he wasn't dead yet. Quickly, he pulled the little poisonous reptile out of his hand. At that moment, the Driller Dragon forced the door wide open. Hiccup, without thinking, flung the paralyzed Piffleworm at the Driller Dragon. Immediately, all four dragons reared back and sprinted out of the room, yelping like terrified puppies. Camicazi and Toothless pulled the door closed.

Hiccup, still on the ground, looked at his palm where he had been stabbed. Why wasn't he dead yet?

That was when Hiccup looked at the page he had accidentally ripped out of the book when he had dropped it. It was still in is hand. He unfolded it. It was the page on Piffleworms. Looking over it, he saw that he knew just about everything on there... except for one. In the bottom corner of the page was a note. It said:

"In my experience, I have discovered an interesting fact about Poisonous Piffleworms. It relates to their venom. When a Piffleworm is paralyzed, the venom is much slower and takes about 10 minutes to kill its victim..."

"Oh Gods," whispered Hiccup to himself. He stood up as fast as he could and went over to where Camicazi was standing next to Stormfly. She was waking up.

"Ugh," she groaned, "where the heck am I?"

"Stormfly, is that you?" asked Camicazi.

"Who's Stormfly?" asked Stormfly. "I don't know any Stormfly." However, her Mood Scales betrayed her by turning purple, like they always do when she lies.

"Liar," said Camicazi. Stormfly stood up, and Camicazi hugged her. "Good to have you back."

Hiccup nervously cleared his throat. "Um,yeah, I think we need to leave. Now."

Toothless looked suspiciously at Hiccup. Hiccup didn't tell them what was wrong because he didn't want the to worry.

Quickly stepping over the frozen dragons, Hiccup went to the end of the tunnel and looked out. They were still a good 200 feet in the air. Hiccup put two of his fingers in his mouth and whistled.

The clear blue sky was slightly disrupted by the invisible Stealth Dragon, which had been flying around, waiting for Hiccup's call.

"Ready to go?" asked the large dragon. Hiccup nodded.

The Stealth Dragon used its pair of secondary wings to hover, using its primary wings as a bridge to its back, so the others could climb across. Hiccup, Camicazi, Toothless, and then Stormfly scampered across the wing and onto the large saddle. Camicazi sat in front of Hiccup, Hiccup sat in front of the other two dragons. The Stealth Dragon was so large and powerful that it didn't mind carrying the other dragons. The Stealth Dragon once again used its primary wings to fly and raised its secondary wings to block its passengers from being viewed from below, making them all seem invisible.

Hiccup was getting dizzy, and it was getting harder for him to breath in the crisp February air. He leaned around Camicazi and whispered to the Stealth Dragon: "Can you get us back to Berk in less than 8 minutes?"

"I can get ya' there in 5," bragged the Stealth Dragon. Toothless slouched a little as the Stealth Dragon took off at subsonic speeds.

"Show-off," he muttered.

The Stealth Dragon took a sharp nose-dive, flying low and fast.

"Head for the Slice of Death," said Hiccup. The Slice of Death was an incredibly narrow gap between the Cliffs of Forever and the Cliffs of Eternity. It acted as a shortcut back to Berk. There were huge rocks sticking up out of the water, but the Stealth Dragon swerved around them, not bothering to fly any higher, or even slow down.

By the time they shot out of the Slice of Death about a minute later, they were all soaked to the bone, but the adrenaline was still rushing strong, so none of them really cared. For a minute, Hiccup forgot about his imminent death and joined Camicazi, Toothless, and Stormfly in whooping with excitement.

Hiccup's excitement, however, was cut short when an electrifying flash of pain shot up his right arm, starting at the palm of his hand and extending all the way up to his chest, making it even more difficult to breathe.

Hiccup made a quiet, strangled gasping noise and hunched over a bit, grasping his wrist. Of course, Toothless saw this and started freaking out.

"Hiccup? Hiccup, what's wrong!"

Camicazi turned around. Hiccup was incredibly pale, his breathing ragged and labored. He was still grabbing his wrist, trying to stop the pain and poison from spreading. He was clearly in pain, and being soaking wet in the freezing cold wind was not helping.

"Hiccup," said Camicazi worriedly, "are you okay? What happened?"

"It's nothing," gasped Hiccup, trying to wave off her concern. But that was when she saw his hand.

Camicazi grabbed Hiccup's hand and held it open. She gasped at the sight. The puncture wounds were oozing out blood, and the skin around the wound was swollen and slightly purple. Hiccup had already lost feeling in his fingers. "How did this happen?"

Hiccup gulped. "When the Driller Dragon slammed into the door, I fell back into a pile of Piffleworms and one of them stabbed my hand."

"But shouldn't you be... y'know, dead?"

He carefully handed her the page he had ripped out of the book. She took it, careful not to let it blow away in the wind, and read the note explaining what happened with paralyzed poison.

She looked up at Hiccup, her eyes showing a fear that was almost never seen. "H-how long has it been?"

Hiccup grimaced as another wave of pain came on. "Maybe 5 minutes..."

Camicazi whirled around and screamed: "HURRY! WE'VE GOT TO GO FASTER! WE DON'T HAVE ANY TIME!"

The speed the dragon was flying at started to rapidly increase as the dragon went into overdrive, fueled mainly by fear of Camicazi.

She turned back to Hiccup, who was quickly growing weaker.

"Lay back against Toothless," she instructed. He gratefully obliged. Toothless wrapped one wing around him to shield him from the wind. She said: "Let me see your hand."

Hiccup held out his hand, palm up, as Camicazi ripped off part of her sleeve and tore it into a bandage. She tightly wrapped Hiccup's hand and sighed, sad that that was all she could do for him.

"Look," whispered Stormfly, looking over their heads. Camicazi turned around and Hiccup and Toothless looked up. There, in the distance, they could just see the high cliffs and peaks of Berk through the fog.

"Berk is only 3 minutes away!" shouted the Stealth Dragon. Hiccup only had 4 minutes left.

Camicazi turned back to Hiccup again. "So um... why do you..."

"Why do I want to get back to Berk so badly even though there's nothing that can save me?"

"Yes..."

Hiccup painfully sighed and shook his head. Toothless had tears starting to well up in his eyes. "I just... I wanted to be home when I die..."

Toothless pulled Hiccup a little closer with his wing. "It's gonna be okay," he whispered in a soothing voice, comforting Hiccup. Hiccup leaned into Toothless and closed his eyes, the poison sucking his life away.

Camicazi once again turned to the Stealth Dragon. "Is it possible to go any faster? We've got a guy dying back here!"

The Stealth Dragon snarled a bit, and pushed harder, going anaerobic. After a minute, the entire island of Berk came into view. The Stealth Dragon, once it was over Berk, landed in the first clearing it saw, and once it came fully to a stop, it collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily from the exertion of flying at such speeds.

Camicazi and Toothless gently lifted Hiccup off the Stealth Dragon's back and placed him on the ground. Hiccup only had a minute left. Two minutes ago, he had stopped responding to what Camicazi was saying, and it was only by sheer willpower that he was still alive.

He was deathly pale, and the wound had bled through the bandage. He was just barely breathing, his eyes were closed, and he looked to be in a lot of pain. Camicazi quickly unwrapped the bandage on his hand, and some of his pain seemed to ease.

"Hiccup," whispered Toothless. "C-can you still hear me...?"

Hiccup was gasping instead of breathing when he opened his eyes. "Toothless," he whispered weakly, gasping between each word, "stay out of trouble..."

With that, his eyes slid closed, and he wasn't responding anymore. Toothless had started hyperventilating.

Camicazi put her fingers to Hiccup's left wrist. "I can still feel a pulse... barely." She looked sadly up at Toothless. She shook her head. "He'll be dead in 30 seconds..."

Toothless let out a cry of despair. Stormfly put a comforting wing around Toothless's shoulder. Toothless lightly shook it off and bent down over his dying human. Tears came streaming down his face. He was about to lose Hiccup!

He gently licked Hiccup's cheek, then backed up a little bit. He closed his eyes and let the tears flow freely.

That was when a miracle happened.

One of Toothless's tears slid down his face and landed on Hiccup's right hand, right next to the bite wound. The tear gently slid onto the wound before being absorbed. Toothless still had his eyes closed crying, so he didn't know what was happening until Camicazi spoke up.

"Toothless," she whispered. Her whisper was filled with awe and amazement instead of the sadness he had expected to hear. He opened his eyes.

The wound on Hiccup's hand was healing! The inflamed skin around it was slowly deflating and returning to its normal color. Then the actual puncture wound the fangs had left slowly closed until there was only a scar left, in the shape of the fangs.

Toothless watched as the color slowly returned to Hiccup's face. Hiccup took a deep breath as breathing became easier. He relaxed as all the pain faded. Then slowly, slowly, he opened his eyes. Toothless was so happy that he almost did a back-flip.

Hiccup smiled up at him, his strength slowly returning to him as the poison left his system. "Well, what do ya' know, Toothless. I guess crying does help sometimes."

Toothless thanked the Gods and smiled. "Happy birthday, Hiccup..."

THE END

A/N: Hiccup's birthday is February 29th for those who were wondering. R&R please. =D