Summary:

The Gang and Gustav are out on a training mission. Nothing new just the same old, same old. Right? Perhaps not. Hiccup doesn't show up, leaving Astrid to find him. But then Astrid suddenly goes missing, along with Toothless too. Meanwhile, the rest of The Gang and Gustav are still trying to figure out if this is a test or a real life crisis. And it doesn't help there is a new clan that's shown up on Berk claiming they come in peace. Will there be any more surprises?

Find out in my latest story:

Trust Issues (Part 1)

Chapter 1

Don't Be Late

The gang and Gustav were out on a training mission on Dragon Island. Everybody was there except Hiccup.

"Where's Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked.

"I don't know," Gustav said. "Where is he?"he asked, this time directing the question toward Astrid.

"Probably sleeping in," Astrid answered the both of them.

"Well, we can't start without him, can we?" Fishlegs asked

"Sure we can!" Snotlout said. "Astrid knows the mission."

"Yeah, kind of," Astrid said, scratching the back of her head. "Hiccup really needs to be the one to do it."

"Someone needs to go and get him then," Fishlegs stated.

No one said anything. An awkward silence hung in the air until finally Astrid broke it with a groan. "Fine," she said, "I'll go get him so we're not all flying off at once."

"Oh, good, 'cause that would be bad," Tuffnut said.

"Or would it?" Ruffnut questioned.

Ignoring the Twins, She leapt onto Stormfly; giving a brief wave of farewell, a smile dashing across her face at a select few of the group, Astrid flew off towards Hiccup's house.

Meanwhile, Hiccup was just waking up. Before realizing what time it was, he drowsily admired the sun streaming in through his window.

That's weird, Hiccup thought to himself. Usually the sun doesn't shine through the window until much later. He turned and laid on his side, still pondering on this thought. Unless . . .

He scrambled out of bed and shook himself off, the sleepiness quickly fading. "Get up Toothless!" he shouted. "We're late!"

Toothless made an annoyed growl deep within his throat, full of resentment at having been woken so abruptly.

"Why didn't you get me up earlier?" Hiccup asked. "You know we have a training mission today."

Toothless rolled over on his back, obviously not wanting to get up. Hiccup rolled his eyes, and then left for downstairs to get some supplies.

As he did that, Astrid landed Stormfly outside and then walked into the house.

"Well," she said to Hiccup, placing both hands on her hips. "looks like someone finally decided to get up this morning."

"Sorry, Astrid," Hiccup said, grabbing a couple of bread rolls from a basket and taking a quick bite of one. "I was up late last night working on some new designs for Toothless. I've got this new idea for a lighter and better tail, and-" He cut off abruptly when he noticed Astrid's irritated expression, clearly telling him to hurry up.

He laughed to himself. "I'll be ready in a few minutes Astrid."

"Good," Astrid said, almost angrily. "The others are waiting for us at Dragon Island."

"Yeah, just let me get Toothless, and then we'll leave," Hiccup answered, then shoved the rest of his roll into his mouth.

"Okay," Astrid replied. "I'll be outside!" she called over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

When Hiccup got upstairs, however, he didn't see Toothless anywhere in the room.

"Toothless?" he called for his dragon.

He turned around, just to have someone put a bag over his head. The rough fabric irritated his face, and he instinctively tried to shake it off. He felt his arm knock some random detritus off his desk as he thrashed about, hoping the noise would be audible from outside.

In a panic, he yelled the first name in mind.

"Astrid!"

But soon, any notions of resistance were quelled when he felt something sharp jab his ribs.

Everything started disappearing as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Astrid was waiting outside when she heard something clash inside the house. "Hiccup?" she called, as she headed back into the house to see what it was.

She didn't see anything out of the ordinary downstairs, only the hastily- packed satchel Hiccup had been putting together when he'd gone to rouse Toothless. So she headed upstairs. While she was on the middle step, she heard someone yell.

"Astrid!"

She waited to hear more, but when nothing else came, she slowed down, yet continued upwards more cautiously. When she got to the loft, she saw two bulky men dragging a hooded Hiccup bodily out of the window. Thinking quickly, Astrid grabbed a connection rod from one of Hiccup's barrels and chucked it towards Hiccup's captors, shouting, "Hey!" as she did so.

Right before the rod hit one of the men dragging Hiccup, he grabbed it in mid air, looking back at Astrid. Astrid turned around to get help, her mouth just opening to construct a shout, but another man blocked her way.

"Hello there," he said. Then, he put a bag over her head as well. She began to fight the restraining hands violently, kicking out with all her strength. The hands just seemed to feel even more iron- like in their grip; they quickly multiplied until Astrid could do little more than take one shallow, gasping breath at a time.

Meanwhile, on Dragon Island, Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins and Gustav were playing Dodge the Rock, a game they had just invented to pass the time. A rock was chosen, on account of the fact that there wasn't much else to use on the island. The twins had some other suggestions on what to use, but the rest of the Gang shot down their ideas in a instant. After a while, Snotlout turned and addressed the gang.

"Hey." He ducked to avoid the lava blast from Meatlug, which was against the rules. "Where's Astrid?" he asked.

"She went to get Hiccup, remember?" Ruffnut replied, frozen in her position to throw another rock at her twin.

"Yeah, I remember." A small rock bounced off Snotlout's helmet before he continued. "What I mean is, why aren't they back yet?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the game came to a stop. A big rock fell to the gravel ground with a dull thud between the twins, which they had somehow come to possess.

"You're right," Fishlegs agreed. "They should be back by now."

"Really?" Gustav asked. "It's only been, like, what? Five, maybe ten minutes?"

"More like twenty to thirty minutes," Tuffnut said casually.

Everyone was really confused by Tuffnut correcting Gustav.

"How long have you been able to count that high?" Ruffnut asked straight to the point.

Tuffnut looked at Ruffnut with an offended look on his face."I'll have you know, that I can count very high."

"Really?" Gustav questioned, leaning against Hookfang's leg with his elbow. "How high?"

"About twelve."

Everyone just stared at Tuffnut after he answered. Fishlegs was the first to get back on topic.

"I say we go see what they're up to," Fishlegs decided. The others agreed. They mounted their dragons and headed towards Hiccup's house, dismounting in front of it. Gustav noted that Stormfly was waiting outside, and that the front door was open. Fishlegs knocked on the door post despite the state of the actual door, yet got no reply.

"I guess no one's home," Fishlegs said at last.

They headed upstairs just in case Hiccup and Astrid were hiding out somewhere, but the house still seemed empty. Even the creaking of the stairs as the crew ascended seemed to be a deafening noise in the dead house. The small group searched Hiccup's loft to see what they could find.

Snotlout looked out the window and stared at the ground. "Hey, guys," he said, waving them over, "take a look at this."

"What is it?" Gustav asked as he walked towards the window, the other riders following him.

"See those marks on the ground?" Snotlout asked, pointing to the dirt. The noon sunlight illuminated perfectly a series of deep gouges in the dirt, along with the occasional heavy footstep.

"Yeah," Fishlegs answered.

"Well, it looks like something was being dragged towards the forest," Snotlout replied.

"What do you think it was?" Gustav questioned, with obvious worry creeping in his voice.

"I don't know," Snotlout admitted, "but I think we should get a better look at it."

They went back downstairs, out the door, and then towards the marks they had seen from the window.

"Hey," Snotlout said while pointing at something hanging in the trees, "what's that?"

Fishlegs moved towards it, grabbed it, and then brought it back to the others. It was nothing but a ragged tear of cloth, and had been almost invisible in the branches due to its pale green color.

Gustav took the torn cloth from Fishlegs. "What is it?" he questioned.

"Whatever it is, it smells terrible!" Snotlout commented.

"It does?" Tuffnut asked hopefully. "Put it near my face!"

"Guys," Gustav said, turning away from the teens, "I found something you might want to see."

They headed towards him instantly and saw wagon wheel tracks leading towards the beach.

"This is where the drag marks stop..." Fishlegs observed out loud, his voice trailing off.

"And where the wagon tracks begin," Snotlout finished.

"What does that mean?" Gustav asked. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say," Fishlegs took a deep breath in, the continued. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Edited 1/12/2016

First off, typing 2016 instead of 2015 is REALLY weird.

Second . . . I don't know, I just really wanted there to be a second thing. :P

This chapter has been rewritten for the second time. (Original, then BeyondTheClouds777 helped, Now Absi B. So two times.)

And yes, I have a new beta (Absi B) helping me until BeyondTheClouds777 returns from her break.

I was gonna go all fan girl on y'all about season 2 of RttE, (New-ish series on Netflix.) BUT I'm not.

See ya real soon my fine fellow friend!

(BTWs Maces and Talons, Part 2 from the series is REALLY cool!)

-MFM