Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon 2, DreamWorks and Cressida Cowell do. I'm just having a little fun.

AN: You guys asked for it, here it is! The continuing tale of Toothless and the scrawny girl he would do anything for. Now, follow along on their continuing adventures and please don't forget to review!

Fair warning, I'm not including the race, mostly because I'm not sure how to write it. I've tried several times, and it comes out jerky and uneven. So rather than subject everyone to that, I'm leaving it out.

That said, onward!

Prologue:

Toothless stalked toward her, his pupils so thin they were almost nonexistent in his eyes. He opened his mouth, and Hiccup was horrified to see the gas building in his throat. "No, Toothless," she cried, desperate to reach her nest-mate before he did something he'd never be able to forgive himself for. "You can fight him, I know you can. You're my best friend, my brother, and I won't believe that you can't beat him!" It seemed she was getting through to him for a moment, but with a kind of groan-growl, he crept toward her. There was no way she'd be able to outrun him, or even dodge out of the way. Despite her improved prosthetic, she still wasn't able to move quickly on snow and ice, and it certainly didn't help that her head was ringing from whatever the monster behind Toothless was doing to him. To them.

Kill her, the voice whispered in their minds, hypnotic, soothing but insidious. Kill her and the pain stops.

The bond between them vibrated, a plucked string, before shattering like brittle metal under a hammer in a forge. "No!" She couldn't believe it, simply couldn't process what had just happened, and she froze like the ice behind her. Her heart felt like it stopped beating and her mind was a complete blank as she fell to her knees in shock. There wasn't even a hint of the bond that they'd shared for almost six years, just an empty hole that would never be filled again unless she managed to save him. Hiccup wasn't sure how, but she knew if there was even the smallest chance, she'd do whatever it took to get him back.

"Hiccup!" Her father's voice, quickly followed by another, female and somehow familiar, rang in her ears, jolting her out of her shock, but she wouldn't- simply couldn't- give up on trying to get her friend back.

"Dad, no!" she cried when she saw what he was about to do. She leaped for Toothless, hoping to change the direction of the blast before her father reached them. A bright purple flash filled her vision, quickly replaced by white-hot pain, then blessedly, nothing.

Hiccup shot up in bed, breathing hard and with her heart trying to pound its way out of her throat. Outside, the sun was just rising in the east, tinging the sky a gentle pink. Toothless lifted his head, eyes blinking open and she could feel the confusion, the potential heartbreak through the bond. She threw off the furs covering her and made her way over to where he lay. With a wiggle, Hiccup curled up between his body and his wing and shuddered in remembered fear and helplessness. What was that? Toothless asked quietly, wrapping himself more securely around his Hiccup. Even though he could nudge her dreams in happier directions, he'd been too caught up in what was happening to do so, this time. His voice had grown deeper in the five years since they'd first bonded, and he'd grown considerably in that same time span. The old saddle didn't fit anymore and he now had an upgraded one that she'd spent countless hours on.

"I don't know," she replied, her voice hitching as she tried not to cry. "Probably just a nightmare." She fervently hoped it was simply a nightmare, as she didn't think she could handle the alternative. They'd grown so close during the last five years that she saw him as more than her friend: they were family now, and she didn't want to lose him.

Perhaps, he allowed, not wishing to frighten her more, but knowing it needed to be addressed at some point. We'll just have to be careful, yes? She nodded, relaxing into his warmth as his purr soothed her heightened nerves. Hiccup was almost asleep again, more than ready to let the nightmare go, when her father's voice rang out from downstairs.

"Hiccup!" She groaned, not wanting to move, but her stomach had other ideas as the scent of breakfast was making its way upstairs. "Come and eat!"

"Coming, Dad!" she hollered back, pushing herself to her feet and stretching. "Remind me to take this off when it's time for bed, bud," she said, gesturing down to the flight suit she'd taken to wearing. "It's not all that comfortable for sleeping in."

You're the one who wanted to fly last night, my Hiccup, he reminded her with a laugh, and with how cold it was, you needed the extra warmth. I can't have you getting sick.

"I know," she giggled, quickly tying her hair, thankfully back to it's original length after the whole Red Death incident, back into a braid. She'd gained a few inches in height, finally topping out a little under six feet, keeping trim but now she was well muscled. "The moon was almost full last night, and it was simply spectacular to see it from above the clouds." He hummed his agreement as he stretched, looking like a large black cat before shaking himself from head to tail. She made her way downstairs, Toothless on her heels, following the scent of breakfast and her father's voice when he hollered for her again.

All around the village, the Terrible Terrors were already up and singing to greet the morning. Despite their rather scratchy and often chaotic thoughts, she had learned that Terrors had excellent singing voices, and they took a great deal of pleasure in singing at dawn and dusk. They also had a tendency to go after rats and other vermin, so each home had one, and there were several stationed around the food storage buildings. It had been one of the more beneficial changes that occurred when the dragons moved in five years ago and Hiccup couldn't be prouder of the two groups for finding ways to work together in peace.

Stoick barely looked up from cooking as he heard Hiccup and Toothless come downstairs, suddenly nervous about the coming conversation. He wasn't getting any younger, and though the relationship between Hiccup and Anstred was progressing nicely, he couldn't escape the fact that Hiccup was his heir and it was time she stepped up to her duties. He heaved a sigh, wondering what he'd do with himself when she took up the chiefdom. Spending the last four decades as chief had become something of a habit and it would take time to get used to having nothing to do all day except what he wanted to do. It would be a change, he thought to himself with a chuckle as he scooped eggs and sausage out of the pan onto plates and set them on the table.

"Good morning, Skullcrusher," Hiccup chirped as she stepped around the Rumblehorn that had attached himself to her father. He rumbled in reply, making her laugh. That was something else that had taken some getting used to. Her ability to hear all the dragons in the village had been both a blessing and curse, for both Hiccup and Stoick. It made it easier to find out what the dragons needed or if they were sick, but at the same time, her attention sometimes wandered when a problem presented itself. She seemed to have a better handle on it these days. He was sure, though he couldn't prove it, that she seemed able to have two conversations at once: one with the dragon needing her and whoever stood in front of her. "Morning, Dad." He bent to one side and she kissed his cheek in greeting.

"Sleep well?"

"Once I finally got there," she hedged, shifting her shoulders. "Odd dreams." Sensing she didn't want to talk about it, at least not yet, he nodded and seated himself across from her. Their relationship had changed for the better: father and daughter were closer than they'd been during the first fifteen years of her life, and Hiccup couldn't be happier about that. Though he still put the village first more often than not, he took time to listen to her ideas when things were quiet and no one needed their attention. He found himself agreeing to more and more of them as time went on because he saw the potential benefits to the village. Once he truly understood what one of her particular contraptions was for, he saw just how much she had been trying to do for the people of Berk her whole life. He just hadn't been listening then.

"Looking forward to the race today?" That was as good an opening as he could think of, despite having worked up to this moment for more than a week. For a man of his eloquence when speaking to crowds or other chiefs, when it came to his daughter, he was usually tongue-tied and left fumbling for words. It might have been easier if she was his son, but he had come to realize that he wouldn't have her any other way than she was.

"Yeah, Dad, we are," she replied, tossing a smile over her shoulder at Toothless. "Should be fun." Stoick let the silence hang after that, unsure of how to broach the subject. While they were closer now than they had been, this was still a bit of a sore spot between them. She often told him that she understood his duty to the village, but she sometimes wished he could just listen or react as her father first and chief second. Stoick had never told her that he often wished for the same: his chiefly duties had made him miss out on so much of her life, and his grief for his lost wife had caused him to push her farther away than he should have. They'd been making up for lost time, but they both knew that Stoick wasn't a young man anymore, and eventually, they'd be parted from each other.

Part of the reason you don't argue with him as much, Toothless reminded her as he settled into his own breakfast, eating enough to be full but not enough to need a nap after he was finished. He wanted plenty of energy to race that day, not be weighed down by undigested food.

I remember, bud, she responded easily, even as she kept her attention on her dad. There was something he wasn't saying, or hadn't worked up the nerve for, and she was getting a little nervous herself at what it might be. "What's on your mind, Dad?"

"Hiccup, we need to talk."

AN: Sorry it's short. Just wanted to kind of whet the appetite for now. More to come later.