Hiccup's eyes flew open. His breath came quickly, and his face slowly brightened into a smile. Sitting up, he glanced around at Toothless, who was still sleeping.

"That's it..." he whispered to himself. "That's how I'll get them to understand!"

Several minutes later, Toothless finally woke to find Hiccup scrawling on a bare patch of rock, using the charcoal from the fire.

"Hey, you're up!" Hiccup stood and clenched his fists close with excitement. "Listen, I know what we can do to finally convince the village, for real this time."

At this, the dragon grumbled with suspicion. He narrowed his eyes and backed away a step.

"No no no, we're not going back, not yet. But I realized something this morning: we tried to approach this the wrong way. Instead of convincing Berk that the dragons aren't evil first, we should kill the queen who's making the dragons steal food in the first place!"

Toothless realized what Hiccup meant when he said "the queen", and he gave a shiver and a grumble.

"It's alright, it's alright, I've been thinking for a while, and I'm pretty sure I have a good plan. Here, I'll show you:"

Hours later, they flew to the lip of the volcano's crater. Leaning over, Hiccup could see the red glow of magma far below. The heat brushed into his face, and he quickly recoiled. Up above, the clouds had gathered and darkened, as if the sky itself anticipated the coming conflict.

"Okay bud, just like we planned, ready?"

He adjusted himself on the saddle, making sure he was secure. If he ever needed to trust his own handiwork, it would be over the next few minutes. He took a deep breath.

"Go!"

Toothless fired a blast deep into the abyss, and they heard it explode far, far down.

Silence.

"Okay, back up, back up..."

A terrible howl sounded from the heart of the mountain, ripping the silence apart. The rocks shivered, and Hiccup felt even his core quake at the roar. This was followed by shrieks and squawks, then hundreds of wings flapping.

"Here they come!"

The two watched as the mountain erupted with dozens of dragons. Monstrous Nightmares, Nadders, Gronckles, Zipplebacks - they all fled, trying to escape the oncoming battle. The rocks lurched, and another roar rent the air.

"Let's go, now!"

Toothless took off, soaring into the air. Down below, the side of the volcano gave way, rocks and trees and dust falling in a landslide. The top of a massive scaly head appeared, shaking off the boulders.

"There it is! Let's go, take us in close!"

Toothless hovered for a moment in the air, angled himself, then dived towards the Red Death. The massive dragon looked up, only to get a plasma blast right on the left side of its face. The duo whizzed over its head, and rocketed back into the sky.

"Well, we got its attention." Hiccup scanned the queen's body for any sign of a weak point. The head was pretty well armored, as well was the tail...and everything in between. "Let's try the eyes. Take us down, bud!"

The Night Fury gave another dive, becoming more and more emboldened the longer it defied the queen's authority. Hiccup could feel the confidence radiating from the reptile as the two plunged again. For the second time in as many days, his stomach fell far behind him. The wind tore at his hair and screamed in his ears as they flew.

Toothless gave another blast, this time on the right side of the dragon's face. The queen staggered from the impact, howling in rage and pain. Staring after the two, it spread its wings to take off. Toothless banked in a wide curve, turning Hiccup just enough so he could see the Red Death taking off, the wide wings lifting it into the air.

"Here she comes! Try the eyes again."

Another plasma blast, and again the queen's head jerked back as the Night Fury and his rider zoomed overhead. Hiccup could tell, however, that they were not inflicting any serious damage; on the contrary, the Red Death only seemed more infuriated than ever, and now it chased after them. It opened its mouth to give another roar, and Hiccup stared at the teeth, longer than he was tall - then suddenly, his mind snapped back a few days, to the tug-of-war between Toothless and the Terrible Terror, and how his dragon was able to fend off the annoying creature with a single well-aimed shot.

"The mouth!" He screamed to be heard over the rushing wind, which ripped his voice from his mouth almost before he could speak. "Aim for its mouth!" Toothless darted ahead, then twisted his body around before launching himself and Hiccup at the leviathan dragon. Hiccup could only hear the wind howling, the scream as the Night Fury closed in, and the furious bellow of the queen.

The plasma launched, and exploded against the top of the Red Death's maw. The queen faltered in her wingbeats, and fell against the ground with a mighty crash. She struggled back to her feet, and watching the Night Fury fly overhead, she let loose a torrent of searing fire, high into the air.

"Woah, watch it!" The two flew up high, well out of the reach of the flames. "Last thing we want is your tailfin catching."

Hiccup watched as again, the queen lifted into the air. He knew that Toothless only had one of his six shots left - they had to make it count.

"Hold on, bud!" Toothless pulled up short, beating his wings to hover in the air. "Let's meet her eye to eye..."

They turned and watched as the Red Death came towards them, eyes sparking with rage. It opened its mouth, ready to roast them for daring to challenge her. Her mouth filled with gas, ready to ignite-

"Now!"

Toothless fired his last shot, sparking the vapor as it still filled the queen's throat, and igniting the glands that it poured from. Again, the giant roared - not from anger, this time, but from pain. Fire began to consume it from the inside out, and for the last time the Red Death fell back upon the earth. It rolled over once, then was still.

Hiccup watched from his dragon's back as the queen went through its death throes. "Hoh..." He gasped as it finally stopped moving. "Oh, we did it! We did it, bud!"

Hiccup laughed with the nervous chuckle of someone who brushed with death, and emerged unscathed.

"Oh, this fixes everything! We go back, tell them we brought down the queen and that you helped me, and we're in the clear!"

He shifted the tailfin, and the two descended to the ground, where Hiccup hopped off the saddle and looked up at the massive body, lying on its side with a single great wing still pointing into the air. No living thing made a sound for a long time - only the wind, whistling a warning of a coming storm, and the waves, relentlessly striking the pebbly beach, offered a soundtrack for the grim scene. Eventually, Toothless gave a suspicious growl to the dead queen.

"Don't worry, she's not going to bother anyone anymore. No dragons, and definitely no humans." Even with that said, though, Hiccup took great caution in approaching it. Suddenly, he felt himself yanked backwards by his shirt collar. Gaining his footing again, Hiccup turned to find Toothless looking at him with great fear in his eyes. The Night Fury hissed at the body, and tried to wrap his tail around the boy, keeping him from going any closer.

"We gotta have something to prove what we did."

Hiccup took the tail and moved it over his head, and he kept walking. Soon he placed his hand on the queen's foot, and felt along one of her toes for-

"Here we go!" He exclaimed in a whisper, without knowing why. One of the scales was loose, all he had to do was pry it off and carry it home as a trophy, and all would be well. Hiccup took it in his hand, and yanked. It peeled up a bit more, but still stuck fast. "Come on..." He tightened his grip, and yanked again. A little more, but still stuck. This time, he gripped with both hands and pulled, keeping up the effort until, finally, it snapped. He fell backwards, clutching the scale in his hand.

"Got it!" He turned around and called to Toothless, waving his prize in his hand. He began to stand up. "Come on, let's get out of-"

There was a loud bluster, as the wind suddenly gusted. Hiccup felt his hair fly over his head as the sudden crackle of gravel being disturbed caught his ear. Turning around, he glanced up as the queen's wing caught the air - and began to tilt the entire body over, right atop him.

"Oh no..." He began to run, Toothless crying out in despair as his human tried to flee the oncoming titanic weight which threatened to crush him. "No no no no NO NO NO NO NO-"

There was a deafening cacophony. A pain unlike any he had felt.

Then blissful nothingness.