Chapter 1 Losing Toothless

They were flying. They were flying often, but today was different. Today they were hunting. Not for fish, but for something bigger and far more dangerous. For the last few weeks there had been reports of something in the woods. Something that was stealing the sheep, and putting fear in the hearts of the dragons. Even now Toothless was uneasy, every muscle in his body tense, ready to turn around and run. He heard Astrid call out his name and he turned his attention to her and Stormfly. She was hovering, pointing to something on the ground. He joined her and looked down. Something enormous had torn it's way through the trees. There was a path ripped clean through. Trees were snapped like twigs or burnt to the ground.

'Hiccup? What could have done this?'

'I don't know Astrid. I really don't know. Let's follow the path, see where it goes, but be careful.'

She nodded and urged Stormfly forward. The dragon went reluctantly. Toothless followed, not very enthusiastic. Hiccup wondered what it could be that had his closest friend so scared. That had every dragon in the village scared. After following the path for a while they found where whatever made it had landed. A circular clearing where the ground was scorched so bad smoke was still rising, even though the earth had cooled down. They could see sheep bones and burnt wool on the ground, accompanied by enormous claw prints. Toothless shook his head. Hiccup knew he was afraid.

'Easy bud, it's going to be alright.'

'Hey Hiccup, any ideas yet?'

'No. But we really should...'

Before he could finish his sentence, the silence was broken by a shriek so loud it hurt his ears. This is when Toothless and Stormfly decided they had enough. Both dragons turned around and ran. They flew as fast as they could, away from that place. Toothless was much faster than Stormfly, and reached Berk long before the Nadder could. It was clear that every dragon on Berk had heard that shriek, and they were clearly terrified. As soon as he landed, the vikings came to him for answers. He couldn't offer any. It took Astrid to finally free him of the men and he went looking for Toothless. He found him in his house, curled up in a corner, his head under his wing, clearly hiding for an evil only known to dragons.

'Hey bud, it's okay now. You're save here.'

Toothless made a muffled, whimpering sound. A sound Hiccup had never heard before and it scared him. He crawled under Toothless' wing, taking the dragon's head in his lap, stroking his nose, whispering reassuring words. He hated seeing Toothless like this. It took some time for the dragon to calm down enough to uncurl, so that Hiccup could take the saddle of.

'It's gonna be alright bud. Nothing will harm you as long as I'm here. I promise.'

Despite the calm night, Toothless refused to go outside, so Hiccup brought him his fish inside, remembering him to the fact this would be the only time he did it. After he had made sure that Toothless was okay, he went to look for Astrid. When he found her she was standing outside the dragon den, where the dragons slept. She looked up when he joined her.

'Where's Toothless?' she asked, surprised to see him without the black dragon in tow.

'He's too scared to leave the house. I've never seen him like this. Something scared him good.'

'Stormfly too,' Astrid said, 'in fact, all the dragons are scared of something. We have to find out what that is, Hiccup.'

'Yes we should. But I don't know if Toothless is going to be happy about that.'

But the next morning Toothless woke him up just as energetic and enthusiastic as he did every morning. Nothing in his behavior reminded them of what happened the day before. After breakfast, Hiccup called Astrid and Valka in a close meeting. They decided that Valka and Cloudjumper would go with them this time. Toothless was eager to go flying again, but got a little nervous when they went towards the island where they found the tracks. The presence of Cloudjumper seemed to calm him a little though, as if he knew that the big dragon would never let anything happen to him. Just as much as Hiccup would look after him. They risked landing this time, because Cloudjumper stayed in the air, watching for the big something that had made the marks on the ground. Now that they were down, they could really see just how big it was.

'Can't it be one of those Bewilderbeasts?' Astrid suggested.

'No,' Hiccup and Valka said at the same time. 'Bewilderbeasts don't fly,' Valka explained, 'they can't.'

'The water is their home,' Hiccup continued, 'this came from the sky.'

'Okay, so what is it then?'

'I don't know... what is it bud?'

Toothless had nudged him, restless and clearly uncomfortable on the island. They left, with more questions that answers.

The rest of the day went relatively normal. The dragons weren't especially agitated, Toothless wanted to fly some more, just as long as they went nowhere near that island, and the day went by quickly. After dinner, Hiccup went to find Valka. He found her standing on one of the many bridges in Berk, Cloudjumper was somewhere on the rocks. He joined her and they watched the sunset together. After a while Hiccup broke the silence.

'You know what it is, don't you.'

It wasn't a question and she sighed. Cloudjumper shifted on his rock, feeling her change in emotion just as Toothless felt Hiccup's.

'No, not really.'

'But you know something.' Hiccup insisted. He needed to know.

'All I know is that there is a second race as old as the Bewilderbeasts. A cold, dark race. The tirans of the dragon world. You fought and defeated one six years ago. It has been around for a very long time, but it's name has been forgotten. The dragons will not speak of it and it took me a long time to get Cloudjumper to tell me. What I know, Hiccup, is if that thing is truly here, the dragons are in danger, and because of that we are in danger.'

'But if they are as old as the Bewilderbeasts, don't they know what it is? And how to fight it?'

'Possibly, but haven't you already killed one?'

'Yeah, and it cost me my leg remember. It nearly cost both me and Toothless our lives. I want to avoid dying if possible.'

'But still, where would you find a Bewilderbeast. The great king from our nest was killed by Drago Bloodfest's beast.'

'Yes... and then Toothless defeated him and he fled... what means he's still out there somewhere. Which means we can go look for him.'

'The ocean is a very big place. Where would you begin to look Hiccup. Just concentrate on your people. Keeping them safe should be your priority right now.'

'It is,' Hiccup said, 'getting rid of that thing that keeps stealing all our food and sheep and getting us dangerously close to a food shortage coming winter is protecting my people. From starving to death.

He turned around. Toothless, feeling they would go home now, came down from his perch next to Cloudjumper.

'You are more like your father than you realize. You remind me of him when we were younger.'

'No mom. I'm nothing like my father.'

'You are in your heart. I'm sure you'll do what is best.'

'I hope so,' Hiccup mumbled, but the only one to hear was Toothless as they walked home together.

They spend the next three days looking for Drago's Beast, but it was nowhere to be found. After the third day Hiccup was sitting on one of the cliffs, throwing rocks into the ocean, Toothless lay behind him, watching over the water. Hiccup was feeling kind of hopeless. It had turned out in nothing. Granted, the ocean was big and they only searched for three days, but still he had hoped to at least find a sign of the Beast, just the smallest. They hadn't and he threw more and more rocks as the anger rose. He felt like a failure. He failed to protect his people. He failed to make his father proud. He failed everyone. Suddenly there was a very loud splash and he looked up in surprise. Then he realized Toothless had thrown a boulder in the ocean, looking at him with big, questioning eyes and Hiccup smiled. It did make him feel better. He sighed and got up. He would try again tomorrow.

'He went out alone?!' Astrid shouted in disbelief. She could not believe Hiccup would do such a thing. Especially with that... thing out there. 'And you let him?'

'He is old enough to look after himself Astrid.'

'Well, I will go find him,' Astrid said as she walked towards Stormfly.

'Then I will go with you,' Valka said and with that Cloudjumper picked her up. 'Saver to go together.'

They had been flying for an hour now, no sign of the little black dragon or his rider. They were about to turn back when they heard a shriek, followed by a scream which was very clearly not from a dragon. They looked at each other, knowing they thought the same. They raced towards the sound. What they saw chilled them to the bone. Toothless and Hiccup were under attack from a giant dragon, similar to the one they killed years ago. Toothless kept blasting it with fireballs, but it didn't have any effect on the giant beast. It spew fire at them, but Toothless was too fast en avoided the flames quite easily. Astrid and Valka were stunned, their dragons frozen. Then, while twirling to avoid being hit by the fire, Toothless was hit by one of the enormous claws of the dragon. It not only tore his wing, but also tore through the leather straps holding the saddle and holding Hiccup on his back. Because of the tears in his wing he couldn't fly anymore, and Hiccup had broken his arm when one of the talons had hit him, so they were falling towards the water. Astrid was the first to come to her senses, realizing that she had to do something. She drove Stormfly forwards, diving after Hiccup and Toothless. She wasn't fast enough though, and they hit the water, immediately swallowed by the waves. She was frantically looking around the waves, totally forgetting about the big dragon that had done this. She suddenly remembered when she heard a shriek above her. She turned around in the saddle, seeing Cloudjumper engage the dragon, ultimately chasing it away. Her heart was racing when she turned her attention to the waves again. No Toothless. No Hiccup. Then, to her relief, she saw Hiccup surface, screaming the name of his dragon. She pushed Stormfly downward and the Nadder claws gently grasped the boy from the water. He kept screaming for Toothless, his right arm bleeding and clearly broken, fighting the Nadder's grasp. Valka urged Astrid to go back to Berk, while she and Cloudjumper kept looking for Toothless. They didn't find him. It appeared that the sea had claimed the young dragon and was determined not to give him up again. They returned to Berk, hours after the attack. Astrid was sitting outside Hiccup's house, trying her best not to cry, jumping up when she saw Valka and Cloudjumper return, soon realizing they had not found Toothless, and her expression grew grim. Some one had to tell Hiccup. Some one had to go in and tell him that his best friend was not coming back.