Fallen houses, missing livestock, and sinking ships, were only a few of Hiccup's many problems the morning after the worst storm to hit Berk in years. To make matters worse his father, the Chief, had been called away to meet with the Viking's head council, to decide on a peace treaty between two warring villages. This, and having the entire village in shambles, was nearly sending him over the edge of insanity.
Seeing an opportunity to breathe, Hiccup and his band of helpful (yet hopelessly useless) companions, made their way to the docks. It had been an awful morning for him to be in charge, and the bickering among those in the group, was ready to break what little spirit he had left.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut walked side by side pulling each other's hair, in yet another argument over strength. Snotlout and Fishlegs were ready to eat each other alive, and Astrid was in another, "mood". No one had been getting along lately, and it was starting to affect not only them, but their dragons. Toothless along with several others, kept his distance, but also a constant watch over his rider.
"Will you please stop fighting?" Hiccup turned with arms half extended, before glaring among the group with a scowl of irritation. "It's very hard to think when you all yell at once!" Tuning back, he began to grumble inaudibly as he walked even faster down the steps toward the docks.
"What's eating him?" Tuffnut looked to Astrid with a surprised look on his face.
"I don't know, why don't you ask Fishlegs? After all, he's the one who can't seem to shut up for five minutes." Astrid's tone was sharp, and her words didn't go over well with Ruffnut.
"Well maybe he's upset because his girlfriend's a total troll!" Seeing Astrid clench her fists, Ruffnut made herself ready for an all out brawl.
"The only Troll here is you miss showers twice a week!" Lunging forward, Astrid grabbed Ruffnut's hair with one hand, and slammed her against the hard surface of the wooden steps.
In retaliation, Tuffnut grabbed Astrid and forcefully tossed her to the side. "That's not cool Astrid!"
"And her calling me a troll is so sweat?" She was once again on her feet, and running toward Tuffnut. Grabbing him, she pulled him close and was ready to land a punch, when Fish legs grabbed her and held her back.
"Lay off her Tuffnut." Snotlout was raging mad as he stepped between both Astrid and Tuffnut. "You're sister was the one being ru-" He was caught off guard as Tuffnut slammed one fist into his face. "You little…!" Balling his fist he stepped forward, barely missing the rim of Tuffnut's nose as he took his first swipe.
"Get off of me!" Astrid looked down, and in her rage, bit Fishlegs' hand to get free of his grasp. "What do you think you're do-" A split pain coursed through her side, as Ruffnut kneed her in the ribs. "Y-you…" Upon gaining her breath back, she tackled Ruffnut, sending the two of them rolling down the steps.
They were now all battling against one another, and seeing the problem quickly begin to escalate, the dragons jumped into the action to defend their riders. It happened so fast that none of the villagers quite knew what to think.
Dragons and their riders hissing and yelling at one another, as if they were children fighting over a toy. Just before the situation worsened, Toothless jumped in and gave a few ear splitting roars. Once things were silent, he looked from dragon to dragon, growling as if to scold them for being so childish. With that, each dragon marched off carrying a very disgruntled and bewildered rider.
Seeing the mess taken care of, Toothless turned from the scene where the chaos had taken place, and watched as his rider stood at the end of the dock, beating his head forcefully against a wooden poll. He didn't like seeing his rider like this, and it always worried him. However, he did know what usually helped when Hiccup got like this.
Making his way down the remainder of the steps, Toothless soon found himself sitting at the edge of the dock. Looking over, he watched as Hiccup ignored his presence and continued to beat his head against the wood. Feeling that it probably wasn't best to allow him to continue, he raised his tail and slipped it between Hiccup's head and the poll. That got his attention.
"Toothless, what am I gunna do with them?" Reaching up, he grabbed the handmade fin and played with it in his hands as he thought. "Better yet, what am I going to do with…everything?" At that came a low caring croon, as Toothless flexed his one good tail fin in front of Hiccup's face. "You always know what I need, and when I need it most. Where to?" Turning, Hiccup took one of the saddles handles and climbed on.
Feeling grateful that his plan had worked, Toothless looked back with his usual toothless grin. That was the usual sign he gave for "valley". The valley was the place where their friendship had sparked, and there was never a week gone by that they didn't make it out there. "Ok then, the valley it is." Giving Toothless a thankful pat on the neck, Hiccup adjusted the tail fin and they were off.
Flying over the village, things didn't seem so bad. Compared to the mount of village still standing, the damage only looked superficial at best. Everything looked much better from the air than it did from the ground, and feeling a bit of the load he carried disappear, a smile crossed Hiccup's face. "Thanks again bud, I owe you a big basket of salmon later." The two of them laughed as they passed near the shore line a small distance away from the village, and before they had been flying for too long, something caught Hiccups eye.
Looking over, there seemed to be a stray boat lying beached and capsized on the sand. At first, his thoughts were that a boat had been lost from the harbor, and drifted to the beach in the storm. However, this thought was soon dismissed, for laying next to the boat, waving in the wind, was a small flag bearing the name "Neptune". Being familiar with the many boats in the harbor, he didn't recognize the name as being familiar.
"Toothless, look down there." Getting his attention, Hiccup pointed to the odd, capsized vessel on the beach. "Wanna see what it is?"
The answer was of course a yes, and upon landing Hiccup made a disturbing discovery. What could be seen from the air, was merely half of what was once a much larger boat. The mast now lay at an angle underneath the twisted wood panels that aligned the hull of the ship, and the canvas that had once steered the boat, was now entangled in what appeared to be a bit of net and fishing line.
"Did the storm do all of this?" Taking a step forward to examine the wreck further, Hiccup nearly jumped out of his skin when the entire mesh of wood and canvas began to move a bit.
From somewhere underneath the wreck, came a low groan followed by a few muffled growls. It sounded a little weak but they could almost hear someone asking for help.
"I-I'm coming!" Feeling it was his job to help someone, anyone in need, Hiccup began to try and push the massive boat off of whoever was underneath. "Toothless, help me." Looking back he could see an irritated look on the face of his dragon. "Toothless what is it? I need your help!"
Stepping forward, Toothless cautiously wedged his snout between the sand and the wood of the boat, before lifting it up with a great forceful push. Once he had the massive boat flipped right side up, all that remained was a massive clump of canvas. For a moment nothing moved, and everything was quiet, but it didn't take long for the growls and fumbling around to begin again.
This time the growls sounded weak, and it could be determined that somewhere among the canvas was a dragon of some sort. There also appeared to be someone groaning in a bit of pain from under the white mess.
Reaching out, Hiccup took a bit of cloth in one hand and pulled up, before Toothless rushed in and dragged him back. "Hey! Toothless, stop that! Someone needs help." Plating his feet firmly under him, Hiccup pulled away from Toothless and looked back. If you want to stand with me I'm ok with it bud, but I have to help who ever might be under that canvas.
Giving Hiccup a look of irritation, Toothless walked side by side with him until they once again stood by the canvassed area.
"Ok, let's try this again." Bending over, Hiccup took the cloth in his hand again and began to pull it away. What he revealed shocked the both of them.
Under the cloth there lay a Night Fury, and a girl around Hiccup's age. The only problem was, that the Night Fury was as white as fresh snow, instead of black like the night sky. The girl wore her long brown hair, tied in the back instead of braided (which Hiccup found to look odd). She wore a mossy green shirt, with sleeves long enough to cover half her hands, and her pants were black. Her boots were made of deer skin, and appeared to be nearly black themselves.
"Who do we have here?" Reaching out a hand to touch the strange Night Fury, he found that almost instantly he was the target of an attempted bite. "Whoa!" His hand leapt back to his side as he stepped away.
Toothless, seeing Hiccup put in danger, charged to attack.
"Stop!" Looking over, the girl was now on her feet, looking particularly exhausted. In one quick move, she managed to throw herself on top of the white Night Fury in protection. "Don't hurt him!"
"Toothless, don't!" Running forward, Hiccup also placed himself between Toothless and the other obviously weaker Night Fury. "Stay calm bud. It's ok, I'm not hurt." With both hands in the air, he managed to get Toothless to settle down before turning to the girl. "Sorry about that, I guess I shouldn't try to touch an unfamiliar dragon."
Seeing that the Night Fury under her was now unconscious, the girl turned and looked Hiccup in the eye. "Please…help me."
"Help you with what?" He could see the look of desperation worn apparently on the girls face. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
Shaking her head she looked from him, over to Toothless, and then back at him. "This is just a shot in the dark, but are you Hiccup?"
"Yes, my name is Hiccup…but how did you know that?" Looking back at Toothless he began to get confused. "Have we met before?"
"No, we haven't met before. I heard about a Viking named Hiccup on an island of dragons. I-I came here to find him…er, you." She let out a sigh of relief before standing up and extending a hand. "The name's Ember."
Following her lead Hiccup also extended a hand. "I would introduce myself, but it appears you already know who I am."
"Indeed I do." Feeling grateful to be in the right place, Ember looked back at the White Night Fury behind her. "This is Marble…he's sick, and I don't know what to do. I think he's dying."
This news seemed to strike both Hiccup and Toothless as alarming.
"Let's um…let's get him back to my village-the village." Feeling a bit taken, it took Hiccup a moment to get his plan straight. "W-will he…will he let us carry him back?"
"Here's the thing. Even I can barely touch him without him tying to bite, or blast me." Kneeling down next to Marble she patted his head softly. "But if he's unconscious like he is right now, then yes. I'd say you could carry him like this."
"Good, then we'll be back to the village in an hour." Looking over at Toothless, he gave him a few encouraging nods. "Bud in the shape he's in, you could probably drop him and the fight would be over." In the next moment he felt a throbbing pain in the back of his head as Ember smacked him.
"Don't say that! Don't you ever say that!" An angry look stood plastered to Embers face as she spoke. Now let's get him to a fire, before all of his energy leaves him."