Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to have more of this so soon... Please excuse the language. Just keep in mind, they are vikings, after all.

Also, for dragon names I've gone with all of them having two names. I see the dragons as sentient, and thus assume they had other names before their riders gave them their current ones.

Anyway, enjoy!


Abduction Chapter 2

The next time she woke, Ruffnut laid very still and quiet. She didn't want to let on to her captors that she was up just yet. After all, last time it had taken a little while from the time she woke up until that nasty perv came in to bug her. This time she wanted the opportunity to test her bonds before she got interrupted.

Her head still ached, and she swore silently to herself as she tried to sit up without making too much noise. Lying on the bare wooden floor for...however long she'd been passed out hadn't done very nice things to her, however. She was incredibly stiff, and trying to lever herself up into a sitting position without being able to properly use her arms was...well, pretty fucking difficult really. She finally ended up inching toward a wall and using it to prop herself up. Good. Now to work on these knots... At least her captors had been stupid enough to tie her up with her palms together. If not for that little mistake she really would have been shit outa luck. As it was all she managed to do was loosen the knot between her wrists just enough so that it wasn't biting into her flesh anymore. The rush of blood flowing back into her fingers was excruciatingly painful, and she bit her lip hard to stifle a scream. Vikings didn't scream. Well, not in pain, anyway. Vikings only screamed in rage. Which she could very easily be tempted to do right now. This whole situation was just stupid!

While she was trying to forget how much her hands hurt, she distracted herself with trying to figure out what the fuck was going on here exactly. She knew those other two girls had gone missing, but neither of them were warrior trained, and although the tribe had sent out search parties, the general consensus had been that they must have been taken by some nearby tribe to be brides. It wasn't unheard-of. Ruff knew of at least three women a few years older than her who had come to Berk as captured brides, but two in as many months was...unusual. And then there was what that nasty tooth-rot bastard had said. He'd called her a "sacrificial lamb" and that didn't suggest kidnap for marriage at all. Unless the "husband" was really truly nasty...

She shuddered very slightly, trying not to react to the mental image that brought up. Either way, she had no intention of just sitting here and being somebody's fucking sacrifice! She was a blooded viking, by Thor! She'd throw herself onto one of her captors' weapons for the glory of Valhalla before she'd submit meekly to anything!


Snotlout had run through all the curses he knew and was presently inventing new ones as he resisted the urge to kick his dragon. Pyre was refusing to move, even though he knew she could tell how desperate he was to get started on searching for Ruff, and now she'd lit herself rather than let him get close enough to get on her saddle.

"Gods send you to frozen Niflheim you brainless coal, would you put yourself out so we can get going?" he raged. "Tuff's probably already in the air, we need to coordinate!"

Pyre glared at him, pacing around him in a large, deliberate circle. He didn't realize what she was doing until he was surrounded by a ring of fire that was too thick and high to try to run through. Besides which point, nobody in their right mind would try to run through Nightmare fire, it was too sticky. You'd be just as likely to get some stuck on yourself and then you were done for.

"Damnit you stupid lizard!" Lout snarled, "what is your problem?" Given little alternative, he sat down in the middle of the circle of fire and...well, he called it "glaring sternly" but it was really closer to a pout.

Pyre settled herself down just outside the flames and ducked her head through, whuffling his hair gently in apology, but she made no move to put the ring of flames out or move any other part of herself close enough for him to mount. She sniffed him thoroughly, made a disapproving grunt, then pulled her head back, leaving him alone inside the fire again.


Pyre (well, actually her name was Syndra among her kind, but she'd been unable to convey that to her charge) was concerned. Her understanding of Human was spotty at best, but it hadn't been hard to understand from words, body language and the reek of worry that something had upset her charge greatly, and that it had something to do with the female. The female had not come by that day, and Syndra had expected and missed her morning visit. She wanted to help him, she really did, his being so worked up was bothering her no end, but if she let him try to fly in his current state his breath alone might light him on fire. She knew how combustible the human pleasuregrass-liquid was. Besides that, even if the female's littermate joined them, that would only be two, and two were at least two too few for an effective quadrant search. They were going to need more help, and she knew just who to ask, now that she had managed to contain her charge and keep him from doing himself an injury.

Placing her head and neck against the ground, she let out a subsonic alarm rumble, calling on Sigel. They might have had their arguments in the beginning, Sigel and she, but she had quickly gotten over that once they'd talked things out, and given that their charges were relations, it was only right that she call upon him first. Not only that, but he would be sure to wake his charge and bring him along, and his charge might be able to better explain what was wrong with hers. He was, after all, almost able to converse properly with dragons.


Hiccup, bent over an adaptation of the quickrelease he'd been designing for Gronkle saddles, frowned as he felt something tingle strangely in his left leg. It felt almost like a small earth tremor but...only in the prosthetic? That didn't seem right at all. He rubbed his eyes, suddenly realizing how very late it was. Maybe he should set this aside and get some sleep. His eyes were getting bleary and that wasn't very conducive to fine detail work like this. He was trying to get out from under the stack of projects he'd been working on so that he wouldn't feel guilty for taking a whole month off.

He smiled softly to himself. It had taken a fair amount of talking himself up to it, but he was finally looking forward to a wedding that, four years earlier, he never would have believed possible even if he was the chief's son. Correction. He was looking forward to the honeymoon. The wedding itself was sure to be a pain. He still didn't particularly like being the center of attention and having people staring at him. It was worth all the hassle for the end result, though...

His brief daydream was interrupted by his best friend. All of a sudden, for no apparrent reason, Toothless sat up from where he was curled up by the forge, ears alert and eyes narrowed. The Night Fury paced over to Hiccup, nudging him firmly.

"What's up, bud?" Hiccup asked, reaching out to give him a soothing scratch behind his ear.

Toothless made the rumbling grunt that he'd come to learn meant "follow, and hurry", nudging him again hard enough to almost make him fall out of the chair.

"Okay, okay, I get it, I'm coming," Hiccup said, blowing out his candle lantern, levering himself to his feet and stretching the kinks out of his spine as he headed for the door, letting Toothless out first and closing it again behind him.

Once they were outside, Toothless picked up speed, going as fast as he knew Hiccup was capable of keeping up with. Hiccup got the impression that if he didn't keep up, Toothless might just throw him over his back and carry him he was in that much of a hurry. Luckily they didn't have far to go. The flickering of flames behind Snotlout's house was an easy beacon for anyone who happened to be up at such a ridiculous hour of the night.

Eschewing the front door, Hiccup headed right for Pyre's stableyard, and when he got there... Well, it took him a few seconds to really take it all in. While he was staring at the scene of controlled chaos, Toothless and Pyre were having what basically equated to a conversation.

"Hey! Hiccup! Man, would you tell my Gods-forsaken dragon to let me out of here?" Snotlout called from his "safe area" inside the flames.

"I dunno," Hiccup shook his head, coming closer to the flames so they didn't have to yell, but not going too close. "She must have had a good reason for doing this. What were you doing when she..."

"Damnit, you gotta make her understand, we have to fly!" 'Lout insisted, with a tone in his voice that Hiccup had never heard from his perennially confident cousin.

"Seriously 'Lout, what's up?" he asked, wondering what could have him so upset.

"Ruff's gone missing," 'Lout muttered, quiet enough that Hiccup wasn't quite sure he'd heard correctly over the crackle of the flames.

"What?" he blinked.

"Ruff...she... Nobody's seen her since yesterday! Tuff's probably already flying and this damned mother-hen won't let me join him!" Lout gestured in the direction of his dragon, who seemed to have finished her conversation with Toothless. "Would you tell her I already got a mother, I don't need another one, I need a..." He sighed, looking suddenly deflated, "I need a partner."

Hiccup turned to the dragons, raising an eyebrow, and gestured with his head toward the ring of flames. "If I promise to talk to him and sort this all out, will you let him out?" he asked Pyre.

She turned her massive head toward the flames, then extended her neck and head inside them again, whuffling comfortingly at Snotlout. She stamped out a path wide enough for him to leave, and gently picked him up by the collar over his loud protests, carrying him like a dragonlet who'd misbehaved and setting him down in front of Hiccup, then she laid her entire body around them, blocking them in against the remainder of the flames.

"She clearly doesn't trust you not to do something stupid," Hiccup chuckled. He got on whiff of 'Lout's breath and waved his nose in front of his face. "Wheew! And neither do I, frankly. You're practically combustible yourself, at the moment! How much did you drink?"

"What's it matter," 'Lout objected, "I'm not makin' it up about Ruff, Tuff was just here freakin' out, ready to rip my head off cause he thought I'd... Well I don't even know what he thought but he was practically berserk."

"Okay," Hiccup nodded. "And for the record I don't think you're making it up, and I'm just as worried as...well okay almost as worried as you, but you need to think about this rationally."

"Fuck rational," Snotlout jumped to his feet and started pacing, "And I don't see where you get off thinkin' you're even close to as worried as me, I mean, it's not like it's Astrid that's gone missing."

"No, it isn't Astrid," Hiccup frowned, "but Ruffnut's a friend. Crazy, but a friend, and I don't let friends get hurt; you should know that about me by now. I had no idea you two had gotten so...um...close," he admitted, flushing slightly. He should have been more observant, but interpersonal relationships really weren't his thing, and besides, he tended to be rather...well...busy with other things, especially lately. "When did that happen?"

"Like a year ago," Snotlout scoffed, "although I gotta admit we have been keeping it kinda quiet. Ruff ain't no girly girl, so girl stuff still kinda makes her edgy. Last thing she needs is everyone goin' all goey over her an' me havin' a thing..." He slowed his pacing and smiled slightly. "I'm workin' on it though. An' when she does let her guard down an' get girly..." He sighed. Then he started pacing again. "But Tuff says she didn't even have any weapons on her other'n her knife, an' even Ruff can get taken by surprise."

"You're right. Anyone can be taken by surprise," Hiccup nodded, "but right now it's after four in the morning, you're drunk, and you aren't thinking things through properly. Even if Pyre would let you on, where are you going to look first?"

"Um..." Snotlout hesitated.

"Exactly," Hiccup nodded. "You don't know, and I don't know either. Where's Tuffnut?"

"He went to get Pillage and Sack," 'Lout said, "I'm sure he's out there looking already."

"Well he needs to come in," Hiccup shook his head, "Zipplebacks aren't known for their exemplary hunting and tracking skills, even if Pillage and Sack are probably our best bet of finding her, they're going to need daylight to do it." He frowned as he thought for a moment. "Toothless and I will go find him and try to get him calmed down enough that he'll wait for morning, and in the morning the five of us will head out after her. The First Riders can do anything, including rescuing one of our own. I promise."

Snotlout sighed deeply. "Well how the fuck am I supposed to sleep when Ruff could be...could be hurt or even..." He shook his head, "This is a lousy fuckin' joke, whoever up there's in charge of this!"

He shook his fist at the heavens, but Hiccup could see the glaze of exhaustion creeping across his face. Clearly the adrenaline that had been fueling him up until now was fading. Just as well, really. Hiccup had been ready to restrain his cousin if he had to, but he hadn't been enjoying the possibility. Even with the lean muscle built up from years working in the forge, 'Lout still out-bulked him and probably always would.

"So do I have your word you won't do anything stupid before I come back with Astrid and the others in the morning?" Hiccup asked carefully.

"Yeah sure fine," Snotlout shook his head, glaring over at Pyre, "It's not like she hasn't made it clear I'm grounded anyway. I'm not goin' inside to bed though. Won't be able to sleep either way so I may's well sit out here an' make plans. I gotta have a reaaaally good plan for what I'm gonna do to the bastards once we catch up to them," he leered.

Hiccup hid his amusement as he watched Pyre. She'd swiped the last of the flame enclosure away with her tail, and without Snotlout even being aware of it had extended a wing to corral him in against her side.

"What're you don' you nutcase?" Snotlout objected as she used gentle force to tuck him up under her wing and hold him in place there.

"She's worried about you; aren't you, girl," Hiccup gave her a soothing scratch on her cheek, "She's trying to tell you to rest and that she'll keep watch until morning."

"Whatever," Snotlout looked mightily put out, but he did give in, relaxing back against her soft, warm underbelly. "I'm still not sleeping, though."

"Alright," Hiccup nodded, knowing better than to press the issue, "I'll be back at dawn." He headed quickly back to his house to get his flying rig. Now to attempt to soothe the savage brother. His night was just getting better and better.


Poor Hiccup; that boy never seems to catch a break, does he? XD Oh well, what else can one so obviously touched by the Gods expect?