"Hiccup, what are you doing here? You're not drunk, are you?"

I groggily opened my eyes. Normally, when I feel secure about things around me, I get a good night's sleep and feel refreshed in the morning. As I opened my eyes today, that wasn't how I felt. I was still tired. Sluggish, even. Like I had somehow stayed awake through the night, fallen asleep just before sunrise, and then someone came to wake me up twenty minutes later.

"Wh-what? What did I drink?" I tried to ask in my stupor. I heard the words tumble out of my mouth, and they sounded more like incoherent gibberish than anything else.

"Hiccup, are you okay?" the voice asked.

Everything was still blurry to me. I couldn't tell what the time of day was because the light was completely blinding. Couldn't even squint. It didn't matter if it was morning or noon or evening. Everything was too bright.

"I didn't drink any ale." Still a bunch of meaningless sounds. I could think the words, but my mouth wouldn't form them.

"Hiccup, for Odin's sake, wake up!" the voice shouted.

In my daze, I only had one thought: That sounds like Gobber.

I felt a hand grab my upper right arm and hoist me upward. I grunted in surprise and a little bit of pain, feeling my shoulder about to pop. The Viking who sounded like Gobber set me down on my feet, where I promptly fell forward and collapsed from lack of balance. I really did make an effort to stand, but my brain and body felt like they were separated for the time being. Maybe I actually did have too much to drink last night.

I tried to think back to what happened last night. I was taking care of Toothless, trying to get his fever under control. And I felt good about his recovery. So after that, I must have wandered over to the great hall and joined some kind of drinking contest that lasted until maybe an hour ago.

"I'm not gonna tell you again. You've got to stand up. It's past noon already."

I must've really had some fun last night, I thought. My mind was still trying to connect things together, and I soon realized if I was inebriated last night, then this morning would have been horrible. I only felt tired, not sick. And I had only tasted ale or mead once. I remembered hating the taste and avoiding those drinks altogether after that. Something wasn't making sense.

Slowly, I got my knees under myself and balanced precariously on all fours. I looked at the surface below me and noticed random blades of grass sticking up between my fingers. I knew grass didn't grow inside houses, so I must have been outside.

At that moment, my mind connected with something else: I had spent the night outside with Toothless to take care of him. I also remembered I didn't want to be in my house until sometime later because of the rancid odor indoors from Toothless heaving so often.

I listened for a few seconds, but didn't hear any dragons nearby. "Where's Toothless?" I finally asked reflexively. Still drunken-sounding. And still generally incoherent.

"HICCUP, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Gobber shouted. "We've been looking for Toothless, Astrid and Stormfly all morning!" Even though I wasn't making much sense, he must have understood what I was asking.

I groaned, trying to connect what he was telling me with his tone of voice. It couldn't have been good, and even sounded a little urgent. I glanced around myself, the brightness slowly ebbing. There was no large black form anywhere near me. Translated, Toothless wasn't here. And if what Gobber told me was correct, my dragon was either hiding or not on Berk.

I sat down on the grass, my left side facing Gobber. After a few seconds, I asked, "Wh-what happened?" My tongue and lips wouldn't move the way I wanted, so it came out a little more like whahaffen.

Gobber sighed in frustration. "You really have no idea, do you, lad?" he asked.

I shrugged slowly, still staring at the horizon.

I felt a quick touch on the left side of my neck. "What's this?" Gobber asked. Instinctively, I rubbed the area he had just asked about and felt nothing. "Move your hand, Hiccup." I did, and he knelt, looking closely at my neck. I heard and felt his breath as he examined the area. Finally, he said, "That's a puncture mark."

"From what?" I asked. In my mind, my speech seemed perfect. But when I actually tried to form the words, they still came out like I was inebriated. I finally turned my head to look at him and felt my neck was stiff. Maybe from the puncture wound or from sleeping in an awkward position. I groaned quietly in effort to meet Gobber's eyes.

"You don't remember anything from last night?" he asked.

I turned my gaze slightly away from him and shuffled on my rear to face him front-on. I tipped to my right somewhat before finally regaining a smidgen of balance. It was much more comfortable facing him front-on rather than having to turn my head. I swallowed, mentally preparing myself as best I could. "All I re-mem-ber was…ly-ing…next to…Tooth-less," I said at an excruciatingly slow pace, focusing on every syllable. To my ears, it seemed to help somewhat. I knew I still sounded ridiculous, but I saw Gobber acknowledge what I told him. As the words began to make sense in my head, my heart rate quickened slightly and I felt my palms begin to sweat. I tried to act casual as I clumsily wiped them on my pants, but it brought no comfort. I was beginning to put together what Gobber had told me, and I finally realized none of it was good.

"Nobody can find Toothless, Astrid or Stormfly," Gobber repeated.

As my mind finally cleared, I began to put together what might have happened. I took a deep breath and began guessing. Someone paid us a visit last night and somehow forced Toothless, Astrid and Stormfly to go with them, I thought. I began to panic a little inside, trying to make that sentence as short as I possibly could. "Av-duh-ted," I said, trying to form the word "abducted." I looked at Gobber almost pleadingly, hoping I wouldn't have to explain myself. I paused, wondering how my stiff neck and overall grogginess fit with my guess. Maybe whoever visited us had a sedative?

"You think so?" Gobber asked. He was still able to translate what I was thinking. Inside, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing this conversation was inching somewhere. He paused for a beat and continued. "Mulch was on guard last night. I'll check with him." Without another word, Gobber stood and hobbled off to find Mulch.

I attempted to roll my eyes in irritation, but the gesture backfired because it only brought on a dizzy spell. I quickly looked down, focusing on the grass near my right foot. I knew Mulch wasn't someone I could easily trust. He meant well, but his role on Berk was mostly confined to being support for Bucket. But had it been Bucket on guard, there would have been no chance for us to figure out what had happened.

Slowly, I moved to stand. I was able to get to a somewhat-upright position with my hands on my knees, but I felt myself teetering. It took me way too much effort to stand on my own, so I sat back down with no grace whatsoever. Some of my breath was knocked out of my lungs as my rear end hit the ground. I put my forehead in my hands, wondering if my idea about someone sneaking into Berk was actually correct. I groaned, a mild wave of nausea washing over me and mixing dangerously with the worry that I was starting to develop about Toothless, Astrid and Stormfly. My palms were still sweating a little, my heart was moving too quickly for comfort, and my stomach had that fluttering sensation.

After what seemed like an eternity, I heard the familiar pat-thump rhythm of Gobber hobbling his way toward me. But there was a second set of footsteps accompanying him. And they had the same pat-thump sound, which told me Gobber likely had Mulch in tow.

Both sets of footsteps stopped near me, and I heard Gobber sigh. "Do you want to tell him?" he asked under his breath.

Mulch didn't say a word, but he sat down next to me, facing the same general direction I was. He looked into the distance, took a deep breath, and said, "Hiccup, I'm sorry, lad." He paused for just a beat, but didn't wait for me to ask him anything. "I only saw four men carrying your dragon away. Couldn't get near them in time, and they didn't do anything when I yelled in their direction."

I closed my eyes. But I had no other response. I felt tears forming between my eyelids, but there was nothing I could say or do. That mind-body connection was gone again.

After a long pause, Mulch broke the silence. "I think Stoick has seen this symbol before. I'll find him and ask." He stood and walked off.

I had no idea what Mulch was talking about. All I could think of was how four men carried Toothless away from me. For a moment, I wondered what Mulch felt like as he watched the scene unfold from afar. And I wondered how those four men were able to keep from waking the entire village. Stormfly was just as good at perceiving threats as Toothless was. She was healthy. So why didn't she defend us?

"Hiccup, lad. Mulch is going to find your father. We'll get your dragon back," Gobber said, but it didn't sound reassuring to me. Especially because I had almost no mobility for the time being. There wasn't a thing I could do to get Toothless, Astrid or Stormfly back until I could walk without effort. And there was no telling how long I'd be incapacitated. I felt a single tear slide down my cheek, unable to do anything to stop it.

There was only one other time when I felt this helpless. The night before my right of passage, when we still fought and killed dragons. I had never cried that much in my entire life, and it wasn't from pain or loss. It was from fear. I was afraid of what was gonna happen to Toothless the next day because I couldn't be around him the entire time to keep other Vikings away from him.

I tried in vain to convince myself everything was gonna be fine, that we'd find Toothless and be on our merry little way. But when you're confronted with one of your worst fears, it's impossible to maintain a positive mindset. That idea disappeared as quickly as it came, my fear squashing it flat.

"Hiccup, you've got to stand up, lad," Gobber said. "I wanna see Toothless again just as much as you do."

Gobber was grasping at straws, but to humor him, I tried standing anyway. I hoped this grogginess would wear off eventually so that I could actually move around.

A pair of footsteps grew louder as I made my way to my hands and knees. I was breathing somewhat heavily, so I couldn't distinguish Mulch's footsteps from my dad's.

"Is he standing yet?" I heard my dad ask.

"No, Stoick. Best we can tell, they left Hiccup and took the other three," Gobber replied.

"Stoick, I found this leading to the docks last night," Mulch said. "By the time I got there, they had already cast off. It's not from Berk, so I think one of the four men dropped this on their way out." I heard the soft rustle of heavy fabric exchanging hands. "It's not torn, so I think it must have just dropped from him."

I heard my dad flip the object over. Slowly, I moved my foot and peg more underneath my body so I could actually stand without keeling over immediately. My curiosity was driving my effort for the moment. I stood and wavered for a few seconds, catching a glimpse of the garment in my dad's hand. It wasn't leather, and it had a single symbol on it, not quite centered. I didn't recognize it at all. It had been painted with several shades of reds and blues. The symbol was weathered slightly, so some of the colors faded into each other. Had it been fresh, it would've been easy to tell this was an intricate design, something only an artisan might have permission to reproduce.

"Do you think he intentionally dropped this?" my dad asked.

I had gained enough balance to stand without tipping over. The act of walking somewhere had yet to be achieved.

I saw Mulch shrug his shoulders. The look on his face said he was being honest. "It might be a taunt," he conceded after a silence.

I turned my focus back to my dad, expecting him to respond. Moving my head brought back another dizzy spell, so I leaned over and put my hands on my knees to keep myself upright. I closed my eyes again and realized that was a bad choice. I felt my weight beginning to shift precariously. Luckily, Gobber noticed too and grabbed onto my right upper arm to hold me steady. He pulled me into an upright position and said, "Oh, no you don't. We're not going through that production again." He kept his hold on me until I was standing without any trouble again.

I tried to focus on my dad, hoping he had at least some knowledge of these people. "Wh-who…are they?" I asked quietly. I kept my speech simple. It was still too difficult for me to hold a conversation.

"I think they're from Scandza," my dad said, examining the cloth. I listened, but didn't look at either Gobber or Mulch, afraid of bringing on another dizzy spell. My dad turned toward Mulch and asked, "Why didn't you wake someone who has a dragon?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mulch's lips turn ghost-white. He never thought of it. "I…I…" he stammered.

"You never thought of it, did you?" my dad confirmed.

Mulch took a deep breath and averted his eyes downward. "You're right, sir. I never thought to do that."

Like I said, Mulch meant well, but he wasn't necessarily trustworthy all the time.

My dad sighed gruffly. He was silently chastising Mulch for not responding to what happened to Toothless, Astrid and Stormfly. I was frustrated with him too, but there wasn't much I could do about it now. But I quickly realized my dad could cover for Mulch's actions though. He had a Rumblehorn.

We had recently been practicing tracking drills at the Academy with my dad's new dragon, Skullcrusher. We gave him an article of clothing or a saddle to smell and let him find the appropriate rider or dragon. Humorously, he almost always went straight to the person in question's house because that's where the scent was strongest. Obviously. But after a little bit of practice and some gentle coaxing from my dad and the other riders, we taught Skullcrusher how to track someone around the island. Just like Toothless when he was learning a new skill, Skullcrusher picked this up amazingly fast. Probably because he had this behavior naturally and we were capitalizing on it.

I was about to say something regarding Skullcrusher when Gobber piped up. "Stoick, what about Skullcrusher?" he asked. "Can you use him to get to Scandza?"

There was a brief pause. I was hoping for my dad to give the answer I wanted.

"…Yes," my dad said after a few seconds in thought.

My mind perked. For the first time today, I felt a twang of hope course through my chest.