Snoutlout felt his stomach churn as he flew on. The wind blasted into his face, and the speed made him nearly loose his lunch. His eyes watered as they burst off, leaving the dragons and lone riders behind. He heard a roar that he knew came from Hookfang, and his heart jumped.

"Hookfang!" He yelled, though his voice was carried away by the wind current. He narrowed his eyes and tried to get a look at the dragon that was caring him. It was a rusty red color and had four legs, each with curved fingers and hooking claws. It had both of his feet trapped between one hand and curled its claws through his pants to keep him secured.

"Excuse me, mind not eating me?" He asked. The dragon glanced down at him over one slender, long wing. Its piercing blue eyes locked with his before it turned its elegant, curved head back forward. It had a long snout with a small, sharp horn that curled away from it, though it had no visible horns atop its head. Snoutlout studied the wing membranes and saw the skin between was a bright yellowish orange.

He sighed and let his head drop, giving up on trying to get the dragon to release him. It suddenly turned sharply to the left. The sudden jerk made Snoutlout sick, though he still managed to hold himself together. The endless wing beats briefly resembled the beats of his Monstrous Nightmare, and he felt himself begin to slip off.

"Nope," He blinked and forced his eyes open. "Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep..." He looked at the misty forest zipping by under him. Snoutlout sighed once more and thought sadly about Hookfang. As his thoughts soared on, as did the dragon, and all he could do was wait.

He jerked to attention when he realized something had changed. The wind was no longer tearing back against his clothes and hair, and everything was visible and coming in focus. The dragon was slowly descending and glided down into a ravine. It tucked its wings close to its sides and calmly fell down. Snoutlout yelled as he saw it plummeted. As it neared the bottom, it widened up enough so it could spread its wings to slow down.

He yelped as the dragon tossed him forward. He rolled on the ground before sliding to a halt, laying on his chest breathlessly. He pushed himself up with a grunt and shook his head a bit to clear the haze. He looked up and saw his kidnapper clearer. It had a long, slender neck that arched up and looked down it snout at him.

"Uh, hi." He lifted a hand. It glanced at it and narrowed its eyes, bending forward to sniff his palm. It glanced at his other hand and gave him a suspicious look. He slowly lifted his other hand and showed he was wielding no weaponry.

It stepped past him, and he turned to watch. He noted it had a long whiplike tail with a fan at the end like Toothless's, except there were three others that grew bigger the further they came to the base of its tail. As he peered over at it, he saw the creature curl up around a nest. In which five delicate orangish tan eggs sat in a wide nest.

"You're a she!" He exclaimed. The sudden sound made her jerk her head up and whirled to glare at her. The dragons' pupils narrowed as it studied him. He quickly raised his hands again and showed he didn't have anything used for attack. She growled and bared her teeth, flattening her soft ears back as she glared at him.

"Alright, sorry." He spoke in a much softer tone. The dragon blinked before lowering its head onto the ground with a sigh through its nostrils. Snoutlout cautiously walked forward, which caused a chain reaction. She jerked her head up and roared in defiance, flaring her wings challengingly. He stumbled back as the roar echoed around the ravine.

She rose and took a step towards him, hissing. He stumbled onto his back and looked up at her with wide eyes.

"Whoa!" Hiccup jerked upright as Toothless was suddenly flying rapidly. He blinked in surprise and saw Hookfang in front of them, beating his wings as he soared past them. Toothless was flying a little lopesided, suggesting he wasn't prepared for the chase.

"Firecracker!" A voice suddenly called. Toothless let out a shriek and a net engulfed them both. He gasped as he slipped through a hole in the net. He flailed around and watched as the Night Fury plummeted down. Hiccup felt himself land heavily onto a tree limb.

The breath was knocked out of him and he slowly slipped off the branch. He fell off against a few mores before landing onto his side. He blinked in a daze as his sight began to fall into focus. After opening his eyes after a long blink, he saw a pair of leather boots. He sat up, pausing at the sudden movement, and then looked up.

"Are you okay?" He asked. He had black hair and bright, green eyes that were filled with alert. He was around Hiccup's age, though he was bigger than him. The stranger studied him as he rose and blinked away the fogginess of pain.

"I-I'm fine. I need to go," Hiccup stumbled a bit, silently cursing his mechanical foot, before rushing through the under growth towards Toothless.

"It's alright! I'm not going too hurt you!" The stranger called. Hiccup ignored him until he stumbled in a clearing. He saw Toothless thrashing in the net with a girl slowly approaching. She had dark brown hair a little past her shoulders and had a silver circlet around her head. She had a worn light tan shirt and darker colored pants-everything about her attire was normal, except the circlet and the band of dragon scales on her wrist. Seeing that, Hiccup leapt into protection mode.

He dashed towards her and flipped his helmet down for protection. He grabbed a familiar thick rod and clicked it open. It released a stream of zippleback gas, in which he skidded in between the two and waved it around. It clicked on the fire mechanism before she could react and leapt back from the wall of flames.

When it died down and the lingering smoke cleared, Hiccup realized her absence. He turned and quickly fumbled out a knife, seeing that Toothless had relaxed more or less. He absent mindedly dropped the rod and knelt down beside the Night Fury.

"Wait!" He paused and looked over at the stranger as he ran forward. He skidded to a stop when he realized he had actually grasped Hiccup's attention.

"Don't get too close. He's an-" The man was cut off as a Monstrous Nightmare crashed into the clearing. It took Hiccup a second to realize it was Hookfang. He also recognized the girl sitting on him.

"Hookfang! Hold on," Hiccup rushed forward and slid onto his knees to quickly cut some of the rope. Toothless flare his wings and jumped up, letting a triumphant roar.

"What did you do!?" The stranger shouted. Hiccup hopped onto Toothless's saddle and latched himself up again. He patted his dragon's side before Toothless turned around. He flared his wings and crouched before lifting off into the air. The two strangers gawked as he rode the Night Fury to swoop down.

Toothless easily snatched up the girl and dropped her into the clearing. The two climbed higher up into the starry sky, Hookfang following just behind. As they soared away, Hiccup sighed in relief and laid down on his back. He rubbed Toothless's side with a hand, relief flooding through him as he had avoided danger. Twice.

"Thanks, bud." Hiccup sat up and looked down at the misty forest below. He saw Hookfang staring intently ahead, a look of worry across his face. Hiccup suddenly sat up and patted at his side. He suddenly realized he had left his rode and pressed his palm to his forehead with a sigh.

"Apparently I haven't screwed up enough," He muttered. Toothless gave him a rumble of sympathy and began bobbing up and down in the air.

"What are you doing?" He asked. Toothless suddenly shot up. Hiccup gasped and leaned himself against Toothless's back and placed his boot into place. The Night Fury stopped and soared before slowly curving downward and diving down.

"Whooooaaaa!" Hiccup yelped. Toothless took that as a sign and stopped, stooping down to fly straight on, once again beside Hookfang. The rider blinked and ruffled his blown back hair And chuckled a bit.

"Alright, let's focus on finding Snoutlout."