AWWWWWWW you guys and your reviews make me so HAPPY. :D Thanks! :D I decided to be a nice little cliffhanger-writer and give you chapter 2 today! :D But before that...shout-outs! :D

ShadowSpirit020: You'll find out with Toothless the same time you find out about Hiccup. I promise you that. ;)

SilverGhostWolf: Yep! No one cares WHEN I post so much as I DO post and I post early enough. :) Thanks! :D

Crystallion12: Yessss, Viggo and Barreck BOTH deserve to die...yeah. :)

RubyTheSkyWing: Yes, they do deserve to die, don't they? ;) Thanks for the review! :D The villains are TOTALLY evil and we all TOTALLY want their heads...but alas. :( NOT YET. XD

Dimentional Phaser: And I...have...updated! :D

Dimensional Girl: That's just about how everyone feels right now about the dragon hunters. They hunters are obnoxious, annoying, and we all want them dead. :D

midnightsky0612: TIME FOR YOUR GRAND ENTRANCE, HICCUP! :D

bella: Yeah I updated early, LOL! :D

TomBoyBookGirl: Thanks a bunch! :D Yeah, I think so far, between these two parts and Skeletons in the Closet, I've had the most fun writing. I know what you mean about smart villains; when the villains are idiots, I wish they were smarter, and when the villains are smarter, I wish they were idiots. :/ Hahaha! :D Thanks for the review! :D

Animals Rule: Aww, thank you! :D

Galaxy-Mitsuko-Pegasus: Hahaha, LOL! :D Yeah, sorry about the cliffhanger...but hey, I had to end it somewhere, right? And what better way to do that then on a cliffhanger? :D Let's see if Hiccup can survive his predicament. :D

Gamer Spice: Hahahahaha, don't be sorry, I want them dead, too! XD I love those villains that you love to hate. They're so much fun to write about. It's kind of weird how fun it is to write the villains, actually. XD But yeah, I'm done with Viggo and the hunters, too. :D Thanks for the review! :D

Forever Me: We will find out where Viggo and Barreck are keeping Hiccup...sooon...and I proimise, I haven't forgotten about Toothless, either! :D We find out where he is the same time we find out where Hiccup is. :) Thanks for the review! :D

DragonRobotkid676: And you don't have to anymore! 'Cause here it is! :D

Jo: Thanks! :D I'm glad you're happy! And where is Hiccup? We shall learn soon! :D

SnivyDragon: Yeah, everything would be hopeless, if it wasn't for Hiccup. Villains in movies/TV series are always undermining the heroes...it's kind of annoying, but effective, I suppose. After all, it's every vilalin's goal to think they're the best, even when the hero is one hundred percent better than them. XD Haha, LOL, yeah, I like cliffhangers. They make me want to update faster, too! They make me excited to write the next chapter. :) Thanks for the review! :D

MaximumRide159: Thanks! :D I love posting early, and I'm glad everyone else seems to love that I do, too! :D Thanks for the review! :D

LunarCatNinja: Yeah, I imagine all of Viggo's hunters be like, "I don't get paid enough for this..." LOL! :D I would NOT want to work for Viggo no matter WHAT he gave me. HE. IS. EVIL. XD Thanks for the review! :D

Salt water spraying against his face was what finally brought Hiccup back to reality. Blinking feverishly to clear his sight, he found himself in a nearly dark cave. Weird. He didn't remember coming here. His head felt like it'd been smashed with a forge hammer (and he knew exactly what that felt like, as he had accidentally experienced it himself when he was seven), and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember coming into the cave in the first place.

More water hit him in the face, and as he spat it out of his mouth, he realized that he was up to his waist in water. Ocean water. He tried to step away, but then, he realized the problem. A large chain was shackled around his ankle. When he pulled, he found that the other end of the chain must have been bolted to a rock beneath him, because he couldn't move it very far without losing his slack.

Great, just great. Well, at least it couldn't get any worse…

He heard a low growl come from the corner, and instantly, he whipped his head around in that direction. Toothless was chained with large, dragon-proof ones, like the ones Hiccup was also chained with. The dragon's mouth was clamped shut by a pair of metal shackles.

"Toothless!" Hiccup called, and saltwater sprayed into his mouth. He coughed and spat.

Okay, so maybe it was a little worse than he had thought it was…

Then, he realized that the water was no longer up to his waist; it was nearly up to his chest.

Which meant it was rising.

The tide was sweeping through the cave.

"GREAT!" Hiccup said, thrashing slightly. "Well, this is productive! How did we end up here?"

He tried to think back; he remembered his friends fighting, he remembered finally getting to the end of his rope with them, he remembered storming off, he remembered Barreck catching up to him-

His brain screeched to a halt.

"BARRECK!" Hiccup shouted. "He knocked me out! He threw us in here! That filthy rotten...traitor! Oooh, when I get my hands on him…"

But right now, that wasn't the problem. The problem was the tide coming in, the problem was the fact that they were chained without much hope of escape…

But wait.

"Barreck didn't kill us," Hiccup said, looking over at Toothless, who met his gaze instantly. "Which means he doesn't want us dead...he wants us to escape. He wants us to escape. Which means he made a way for us to escape. There has to be something in here that can help us…"

Toothless growled his agreement.

Yep, still, no help at all. Hiccup couldn't think of how on earth they were going to get out of this one…

Wait.

Earth.

"I wonder…" Hiccup said slowly, and he, without fully thinking about what he was doing, dove beneath the water. He could hear Toothless roar at him from above, but the sound was muffled; he could barely make it out.

All he was focused on was the large chain, bolted with a gigantic lock to the largest rock on the cave's floor. Hiccup, holding his breath, grabbed a handful of sand from the cave's sandy ground and stuffed it into the locking mechanism of the lock.

He made a mental note that the locks weren't dragon proof. There was a reason for that, too; another hint that Barreck had trapped them with the intention of letting them escape. And of course, if they didn't escape, they would drown, and Hiccup was sure the hunters wouldn't be too upset about that…

He jammed as much sand as he could into the lock, and when his lungs finally ran out of air, he kicked his feet and broke the surface. The water was now to his chest, nearly touching his shoulders.

If they didn't get out soon…

Hiccup grabbed the chain and gave it a hard jerk. It didn't give. He yanked it again, harder the second time, and this time, thankfully, blessedly, the lock's mechanism was compromised by the amounts of sand jammed into it, and the strength of Hiccup's yanks finally did it.

The lock snapped, and Hiccup was flung backwards, into the water. He resurfaced quickly this time, however, coughing and choking and still grinning like an idiot.

"Yes!" he cheered. "It worked!"

Toothless growled at him happily, and Hiccup wasted no time in diving back beneath the waves and swimming towards the dragon. The chain was still shackled to his wrist, but without the bolt attaching it to the rock, he was free.

He broke the surface of the water, brushing wet hair out of his face. "Don't let your head get in the water, bud!" he shouted to Toothless, and then, he dove back beneath the surface. Dragons couldn't light their fire if their heads were wet.

Toothless' chains were exactly like Hiccup's were; thick and dragon proof, but with a non-dragon proof lock. Hiccup broke the surface again; using the sand-in-the-lock would take too long. They would drown before they had a chance to get out.

Hiccup wrestled the muzzle off Toothless' head with little to no effort and tossed it carelessly into the water.

"Now, fire at the lock, Toothless!" Hiccup said, and Toothless, after taking aim, released a large bout of plasma, straight down at the lock. The lock was destroyed, and Toothless' chains fell free, just as the tide swept in, and the water level rose all the way to the roof.

Hiccup, holding his breath, pulled himself onto Toothless' back, and Toothless sped towards the mouth of the cave, through the water.

For a few moments, Hiccup could hear nothing but water rushing through his ears and his heartbeat pounding against his throat.

And then, Toothless broke out of the mouth of the cave and skyrocketed into the open, clear blue air, blissfully free. Hiccup threw his hands above his head, silently cheering their escape.

"It worked!" he said. "It worked, it worked, it worked!"

He looked over his shoulder; Dragon's Edge was right there, standing peacefully as if nothing had ever happened.

"Let's fly over, bud," Hiccup said to Toothless, and Toothless turned, spread his wings, and shot straight towards their base. The Night Fury landed on the platform in front of the Clubhouse, and Hiccup dismounted, racing towards it, hoping that his friends were still here, hoping they hadn't ventured to the dragon hunter's base without him…

He threw open the doors, and his shoulders slumped in disappointment.

It was empty. The weapons were gone, the dragons were gone, and the maps were sitting untouched on the table.

"Oh no…" Hiccup whispered. "They left...this is bad…"

Toothless came up behind him and growled. Hiccup stepped into the silent Clubhouse, looking around, half-hoping for the first time in his life that the twins would leap out in front of him and shout "LOKI-D!" in his face.

But they never did.

"Why'd they leave without us?" Hiccup finally asked, turning to look at Toothless. "They wouldn't have left without us, especially if they didn't know where we where…"

That's when his eyes caught sight of the small, slightly crumpled piece of parchment that certainly hadn't been there last time Hiccup was in the Clubhouse. Brow furrowed, he moved over to investigate, taking the paper, smoothing it out, and reading it to himself.

"'Dear Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Barreck,'" he read, and Toothless listened, "'with everything happening between you guys, I decided it'd be safer for us all if…' Oh no…" He stopped reading there. He had heard enough. "Barreck made them think I'd already left!" Hiccup said. "Oh, Thor, that traitor...he's almost as smart as Viggo! No wonder he's working with the hunters! I bet Ryker hired him for his brains! Got a little tired of having to use his own for once, I guess!"

Toothless growled at the note, and as soon as Hiccup returned it to its spot on the table, Toothless blew it up with a small purple firework of a plasma blast.

"Which means," said Hiccup, "if those guys bought the note...Barreck led them straight into a trap."

He gasped at this realization. He had already realized it before, in his mind, but speaking it out loud made it all the worse.

"Come on, Toothless," Hiccup said, swinging his leg over Toothless' back and clicking his prosthetic into the pedal to control the Night Fury's tailfin. "We have to go after them before they get themselves killed."

Toothless growled at him.

"I know, I know, we don't have a plan," Hiccup said, "yet, but...we can't leave them at Ryker's mercy. Who knows what that maniac's capable of."

Toothless nodded his reluctant agreement, spread his wings, and shot through the door of the Clubhouse and back into clear, open sky, pounding his wings against the air, flying as fast as he possibly could, prosthetic set on the fastest gear it had.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes, already formulating his plan. "If you hurt my friends, Barreck," he growled, more to himself than anything, "I'm going to make sure you live regretting it."