''Hiccup?'' called Astrid as she entered the Clubhouse and found it empty. Usually, he was always the first up, already preparing the day. But that morning was different. She didn't last any more seconds in that building and rushed to his hut, only to find it empty as well. The bed had clearly not been slept in that night, and Toothless' stone bed had been heated at least a day ago, not that night.

Everyone else was asleep, only her and Stormfly up, ready for some training. If Hiccup and Toothless weren't the firsts up, then they were always the seconds.

Astrid waited in the Clubhouse all dawn, with still no sign of her leader. Eventually, the other riders woke up and met there as well, none of them being Hiccup nor in the dragons being Toothless, the unmistakable jet-black Night Fury.

''Hey, guys,'' waved Astrid as she walked up closer to them. ''Have any of you seen Hiccup?''

''I saw him yesterday, does that count?'' said Ruffnut, rising her arm in proposition.

''No, it doesn't.'' snapped Astrid. Her concern for Hiccup's mysterious disappearance was irritating her and she was trying her best not to take it out on the other riders.

''Isn't Hiccup on patrol duty?'' said Snotlout, which was true but then again it was pretty late in the morning.

''Snotlout, the sun has risen a while ago. He should be back by now.'' said Astrid. ''He's never been gone all night like this.''

She walked out of the Clubhouse and stood to look out at the horizon, hoping wherever he was right now, was alright. She knew that if he spotted any ships or anything that wasn't supposed to be on Dragon's Edge, he would report to them and they would all take care of it. If he knew he couldn't win the fight, he surely wouldn't try on his own to chase the enemy off.

A sudden roar rose in the air, and everyone in the Clubhouse turned on their heels to face the Night Fury who had just entered, jumping up and down while whining in panic. He didn't quite look himself at the moment, and everyone could guess the reason being far from good.

''Alright, I think Hiccup's been flying him in thin air again,'' said Snotlout, taking a few steps back from the crazy dragon. ''Because he's out of his mind.''

''If Toothless is here, and Hiccup's not...'' began Fishlegs, but Astrid was already mounting her dragon so as everybody else was.

''Come on, Fishlegs! Mount up.'' ordered Astrid, gesturing to follow. ''We have to find Hiccup.''

Toothless roared and leaped off the platform and soared down. He spread his wings wide, letting himself being carried by the wind to the ground. The instant his paws hit the forest floor, he was already running through the forest, keeping up roaring to let the others know where he was at all time.

Astrid knew this wasn't good. If Toothless was willing to leave his rider alone somewhere, probably unable to stand up and walk all the way back to the base, or even ride Toothless, this could mean something serious happened. Now they just had to get to him, Toothless leading the way to where Hiccup was.

...

Many hours ago…

Hiccup and Toothless flew across the night sky, green eyes scanning the ground and ocean below, searching for any enemy ships or anything unusual on their island.

After a couple loops around Dragon's Edge, Hiccup was about to direct Toothless back to the base for everything was clear. But then, from below, from the thick dark green trees, something was fired. Unfortunately, unable to dodge the bola shooting out of the blue, Toothless found himself getting wrapped up by the ropes, pinning Hiccup to his back, and sending them both crashing down to the forest floor.

The moment the Night Fury crashed, his rider was sent out of the ropes. Hiccup scrapped himself as he hit the hard ground, creating many rips in his red shirt, mostly on his upper-arms, one of his vulnerable spots when he wore his leather armor.

It took a moment for Hiccup to recover. He shook his head, pressing a hand against his forehead. He focused on his surrounding and looked back at Toothless who was still lying down, wrapped up in ropes, vulnerable and an easy catch for those who had just knocked them out of the sky. Thing was, he didn't know who it was, but he had a feeling he would find out soon.

Before he could think of himself, Hiccup ran to his dragon, finding himself limping as he did. Instantly, he pulled out his hunting knife and began sawing the ropes bounding Toothless, wishing he could stop time there and work on the material keeping his dragon prisoner.

As he was finishing off with the one around his buddy's legs, a dagger was suddenly pressed against his throat from behind him, a hand taking hold of his hair, pulling him away from his best friend.

''Don't worry about the dragon, that's not why we're here for.'' growled Ryker as Hiccup did his best to break free without succeeding. He bit his tongue almost painfully and shut his eyes tightly, ready for the blade to slice his throat at any given moment now.

He tried to steady his breathing and spoke his turn. ''What do you want, Ryker?''

''Isn't it obvious? What is it you stole from our ship that belongs to us, the Hunters?'' he demanded.

Hiccup opened his eyes to realization and sighed, noticing as well two men with Ryker.

''The Dragon Eye? Are you kidding me? Man, what is it gonna take for you to understand you're never gonna win?'' said Hiccup, only to inhale sharply when the blade was pressed harder beneath his chin. ''I don't have the Dragon Eye, right now. And there's no way you're getting it tonight. It's massively guarded by the other Riders, so if you wanna go for a suicide run, be my guest.''

''Oh-ho-ho, no, I'm not leaving this island empty-handed again, trust me.'' laughed Ryker, and before Hiccup could question what he was talking about, he was passed to the two other soldiers, who grabbed both his arms tightly and held him there as Ryker approached him, balled fists.

Hiccup struggled to get free, knowing what was coming next, but he didn't stand a chance alone. Using the same hand holding the dagger, Ryker hit the boy on the side of the head, strong enough to disorient him but not enough to knock him out.

Hiccup's vision blurred and he met Ryker's dark eyes once again before receiving more strong punches in the stomach. Desperately, Hiccup tried to claw his abdomen as the pain grew burning like wood licked by flames, but it was no use for it was far from what he could do just about now.

Watching this helplessly, Toothless' wide eyes were locked on his rider, and every time he saw another blow coming to him, he would thrash around, trying to free himself and come in help. Doing this, the ropes tying him slowly loosed, but not fast enough. His jaws were tightly wrapped; his tail thrashed uselessly, his wings pinned to his side and his paws' ropes looser than any other.

After bruising the boy a little, Ryker back off as his men still held Hiccup in place.

''Now,'' said Ryker, ''Tell me where the Dragon Eye led you. And don't forget a single detail.''

Hiccup's head hung from his neck as his stomach burned in pain from the blows. He was having a hard time breathing correctly as well. So far, he found his lower lip cracked and bleeding, a cut on the left side of his head where the man had hit him, another at his throat where Ryker had sliced through his skin just slightly, and for what was beneath his neck, he couldn't tell. All he knew was that it hurt.

''Talk!'' roared Ryker as he sent another great punch to the boy, this time to the left side of his body, just under the ribcage. Hiccup gasped in shock and slightly jumped backwards to somehow avoid as much of it as possible. ''I said TALK!''

''He's not breaking, sir.'' said one of the hunters holding Hiccup in place. ''Anyone you've tried breaking has by now, but he beats the records.''

''Oh, he'll talk already, you'll see.'' chuckled Ryker as he lowered himself to grab the boy's chin and force him to look up. ''Everyone eventually breaks, and you're no exception.''

And without any warning, Ryker hit the boy again, again and again, and Hiccup was sure that some of his bones had already broken, but he couldn't tell for he could hardly feel a thing now. He was thrown against the tree behind him, his back hitting the hard surface painfully, unable to find the strength in him to slow down to soften the impact.

He dropped limply to the ground and found himself being kicked in the middle and side again, unable to do much to prevent each and every single blow. If they ever decided to turn around and hurt Toothless in his turn, he didn't know if he'd find the strength within to fight for the most important thing in his life. He couldn't even defend himself at the moment, and he felt so weak.

Everything around him suddenly seemed to fade away, and then all he could see was darkness surrounding him from every corner.

Discretely, Toothless had managed to untie his legs completely and use his claws on the rope around his head. He pulled himself to his feet and broke the ones at his wings. None of the three hunters had noticed him, too busy beating his rider up. The Night Fury snarled furiously and prepared a plasma blast down his throat, the purple light glowing from between his jaws.

The instant the men heard the hissing sound of the fire from the black dragon, the hunters made a runaway, and Toothless fired at the hunters gaining distance from Hiccup and him. Toothless could've killed all three with one blow easily, but he knew his rider wouldn't want it. Since when did they fire people into oblivion?

The dragon roared to send them all a warning to never mess with him and his rider again, and with his super hearing, he heard them jumping aboard a ship. They wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. They were clearly unprepared for this, and Toothless was thankful for that. Any more bruises on the boy might as well have killed him.

Toothless trotted closer to his rider, nuzzling his head, whining in worry. But Hiccup didn't respond and only lied there unmoving. There was no way he would make it through without serious care, and that he had to find. They were pretty far from the base were the other riders were still sleeping right now, but if he didn't go now, Hiccup might as well die there and for that he would never forgive himself.

So, without anymore added, Toothless, willing to leave his rider defenseless, made a run for help. He hoped he could make it in time before it was too late.

...

Toothless led the riders towards Hiccup, zigzagging between the many trees in his way. He checked behind him once in a while to see if Stormfly, Hookfang, Meatlug, Barf and Belch were keeping up. There was no time to waste at all.

After what felt like hours, Toothless spotted his rider, the place where it had all happened, and roared once again for the other dragons and riders to know where he had gone.

Stormfly's massive feet were the first to hit the ground.

...

His surrounding felt warm - warmer than last time he had opened his eyes. He didn't quite know where he was, or what had happened, as if his mind had forgotten to register the last few hours. Hiccup lied on what felt like being his... bed? A blanket covered him up to his middle, though he didn't feel any armor on like he usually did. He blinked his eyes open and the first sight he got was a black dragon with bright green eyes staring down at him like a guardian-angle, looking after him every single moment.

''Hey, Toothless,'' he said, placing both hands on the dark dragon's head as he whined and licked him lovingly, glad he was okay. He didn't remembered much, but he could tell something had happened, and it had made the dragon quite concerned. ''What happened, bud?''

He soon got his answer when Toothless accidently pressed one of his front paws on his abdomen, causing him to cry out the burning pain. He clawed his stomach like he had wanted before.

Toothless backed off shamefully. Still whining, he curled into a ball on his stone bed, his eyes never leaving his rider.

Hiccup took off the blanket over him to have a look at his state. All he knew was that he was hurting, and that his dragon was strangely concerned about him. He sat straight, which made things painful as well, and slowly - carefully - took off his red shirt.

The moment his eyes landed on himself, he actually regretted taking that decision of finding out what was up with him. He found a bandage wrapped tightly around his ribcage, which he guessed meant broken ribs. Several and terrifying bruises covered him all over as well. The scariest one was the one spreading on his left side, from his front to his back. He also found many cuts here and there, from the impact on the ground when he had crashed with Toothless.

''Bruised muscles and several fractured ribs.'' said a voice from the stairs, and Hiccup raised his shocked gaze to meet Astrid who stood there for Thor-knows how long.

''Yeah,'' he replied, quite hurt – hurt by what had happened to him. ''I guess I got a scar out of it.''