A/N: Sorry if there is a delay between chapters. The weather is getting warmer, and my family just got a new computer and keyboard, so it's taking me some time to get used to the new one. By the way, the spurs are like thorns, not the prickly stuff you find in the grass on soccer fields.
Dead by Dawn
Chapter 2
Hiccuping Fury
The only sound was the wind.
Hiccup closed his eyes, loving the feeling of the cool, high altitude wind caressing his face. It felt unspeakably refreshing after spending hours in the hot, muggy air of the surface. Hiccup was glad that he didn't have to search for any more metal. He finally had enough to finish Toothless's birthday present.
It seemed to Hiccup that it was actually kinda a good thing that Toothless had knocked him over and into the spur grasses. If that piece of metal hadn't gotten lodged into the back of his skull, then he and Toothless would probably still be on the ground, searching through the dense buggy forest. The only downside was the wound on his head and the injury on the side of his wrist.
Thinking of his wrist, Hiccup noticed that it had started throbbing again, and it felt kinda wet. He opened his eyes again and looked down at his right wrist, where the glove didn't cover. It had started bleeding pretty heavily now, and the entire bandage was soaked red.
Why is that still bleeding? Hiccup wondered. The spur had been lodged into the side of his wrist, not near the veins. Either way, it was probably a good idea to change the bandages.
Looking over the side of Toothless (who was purring with the joy of flying), Hiccup saw that they were over the ocean and the 200 foot tall rocky islands, just off the shores of Berk. In the air, this would probably be a good place to re-wrap his wrist.
Quickly unwrapping the bandage, Hiccup inspected the wound. It hurt like crazy when exposed to the high speed winds. The skin around the wound was red, but Hiccup figured that that was just some blood that had left his skin a little stained. The wound itself was bleeding, a thick stream of blood flowing from the wound. The wind was pushing the stream of blood up Hiccup's arm, making it look like there was a large cut running from his hand, nearing his elbow.
With a tight grip, Hiccup pulled a clean, new bandage (courtesy of Camicazi) out of the easily-accessible burlap sack and expertly wrapped it around the wound on his wrist. He used the old, blood-soaked bandage to wipe the blood off his arm.
Toothless turned a little as they started to angle slightly away from the open sea, but then Hiccup felt Toothless's body give a slight twitch before there was a blue fireball exploding a few feet in front of them.
Hiccup just barely reacted with the foot pedals in time, losing his grip on the bloody bandage and letting it fall to the sea.
Toothless swerved to avoid the fireball that he had accidentally launched. Hiccup, only able to hang on with one hand, felt the safety straps holding him to the saddle and the Night Fury.
Toothless quickly leveled out again. He looked freaked out. "What the heck is going on?"
Hiccup smiled. "Toothless, I think I know why you keep randomly shooting little fireballs. But I'm pretty sure you're gonna think it's ironic."
"Well, don't keep it to yourself, what is it?"
"Toothless you've got the hiccups!"
There was a short silence before they both burst into laughter. The laughter stopped a few moments later when Toothless was laughing so hard that he couldn't flap his wings, and they both started plummeting towards the sea.
Hiccup wiped a tear from his eye, his sides still sore from laughing. Well, he hoped it was from laughing...
After taking a deep breath to calm himself (and stop the shaking from the terror of the sudden-but-brief free-fall), Hiccup looked down at Toothless.
"I didn't know it was possible for dragons to get the hiccups."
Toothless shrugged. "I didn't really know that either. Never had 'em before."
Hiccup laughed a little more. Then Toothless asked him: "Hey, you said you wanted to check something out?"
"Oh yeah! Do you remember that cave we found last summer?"
"Yeah. Crescent Grotto?"
"That's the one."
"Why would you want to go there? I can't even think about that place without thinking about-"
"Yeah, I know..." Hiccup shuddered, remembering the deeply unpleasant and excruciatingly painful experience that occurred right after they left Crescent Grotto. "I just wanted to see something."
"Alright," said Toothless, sighing. "But if you start having flashbacks, I'm getting you out of there, then setting that whole place on fire."
"Fine. But if I have an anxiety attack and pass out, how are you gonna get me out of there if the only way out is to either fly or swim?"
"This gave Toothless pause for thought. "Meh... I'll figure it out."
"Awesome! Let's go!"
Hiccup adjusted the foot pedals to angle them low over the water and close to the drop-offs and cliffs. However, just before Toothless turned down into the dive, Hiccup glanced behind him. From the tops of the trees on top of one of the rock structures, he just glimpsed a tail disappearing into the trees.
That was the first hint that Hiccup got that told him that there was something on the 200 foot rock island. It wouldn't be the last...
A/N: There was one part in that chapter that I'm really considering making very important later in the story... Hmm... Please read and review! =D
P.S. The main enemy is also half-way introduced in the next chapter.
