Okay! Here's another chapter. I do have some stuff to address though, just to answer some of the reviews:

First of all, this is not a character death fic. A character abuse fic, yes. Violence fic? Yes. Injury fic? Hell yes. But not a death fic. So no worries there.

Also, I hate to let down those of you who like hard-core slash -- Thor knows I can be one of them. But for the time being, this is not going to be really heavy. I don't think. Maybe. I'm bad at speculating.

I also made this chapter longer, because it might take me a few days extra to update. I don't know this for sure, but it's a just-in-case.

Anyway, here's the chapter. I'll stop stalling. Thanks everyone who reviewed the last one(s), hope you like it enough to review again!

--x--

Chapter three - in which Hiccup takes a swim.

Snotlout was about three times the size of Hiccup. Not necessarily in height, but in many other aspects: his hands were huge, his feet were broad, his muscles were bulging. In contrast to the scrawny little son-of-the-chief Viking before him, his build was existent. Hiccup could turn sideways and vanish, for the Gods' sake.

His fists balled dangerously as he lumbered forward, his shadow casting itself over Hiccup while the younger and much smaller male cowered on the ground.

"Snotlout, listen," he was blathering, eyes searching desperately for some sort of humanity in the elder's face, "I don't know why you're upset, but I promise you it probably has nothing to do with me. R-remember when your dad almost died in that fight, and you got really upset and shoved me into the mud that one time? And then you felt bad afterward and apologized?"

Hiccup was crawling backwards as he spoke, unaware how quickly he was closing in on the thick trunk of a tree. He let out a small yelp as his back bumped into it, his eyes looking around wildly for escape.

"I apologized because my father made me," Snotlout spat, his hulking form heaving as he drew in deep breaths. "Not because I give a shit about 'iddy-bitty little Hiccup'."

"Y-y-yes, but then you were nice to me for a while, remember?"

"Shut up!"

Smack. The first fist made contact with the side of Hiccup's head, sending the slight male to his side on the ground. Disoriented, he only curled into a half-ball as Snotlout brought his foot forward, crashing it blindly into the body before him. There was something oddly satisfying about the feeling he got what he kicked Hiccup in the ribs; it was as if a weight was lifting from his back. It drove him to swing his leg again, and again once more, before he stopped and looked down at his work.

Hiccup couldn't breath. His lungs burned, his ribs ached, and when he finally managed to draw air in through his mouth, the pain only increased. He balled tighter on the ground, hoping to somehow hide within himself so that Snotlout couldn't keep hurting him.

A huge hand wrapped around the back of his bearskin vest and hoisted him effortlessly into the air. His arms wrapped around his chest to cope with the pain while he hung there limply.

"You're pathetic." Hot breath billowed into his face, prompting him to open his eyes. Snotlout's nose pushed against his, the other so close that Hiccup felt even smaller in comparison.

There was a blur as his weight shifted, before he was flying. For the briefest of moments, Hiccup felt near weightless, before he crashed into earth once again and rolled twice. Coming to a stop facing Snotlout's direction, he could see the older male stalking toward where he had landed. Terrified, he somehow threw his weight to his feet and began to run, blindly, in the opposite direction.

"Hiccup!" Snotlout yelled, aggravated that his target was attempting to flee. He made chase almost immediately, but for whatever reason, Hiccup wasn't giving up. It wasn't the first time he had pushed Hiccup around - albeit certainly the worst - and the small Viking had always been fast to submit, just to get it over with.

Not this time. Hiccup pumped his legs as fast and as hard as he could, adrenaline shoving him forward through low-hanging branches and over fallen logs. The wind tugged the hair out of his eyes, but he wasn't looking where he was going: he just wanted Snotlout to vanish behind him. He wanted to get away.

He wasn't certain how far he had gone. His legs were beginning to tire, as he was never a strong runner, and now he only really had one to tire in the first place. The length of run-time was expectedly short. While the mantra of 'No, no no!' screamed in his mind, his could feel his muscles wearing out.

Something caught the hook of his prosthetic leg and sent him to the ground. Though quick to struggle to back up, he couldn't get it lose from the trap it was in.

"No, no!" He gasped, finally releasing the buildup of panic with words. He tugged helplessly before the leg suddenly detached from his own, sending him flying forward back into the dirt. He gagged some, terrified at the feel of the weight vanishing from his left leg. He could see, in the blur of his vision, a large blue expanse before him; he had reached an open cliff by the sea.

He had run farther from the village.

The hefty footfalls of Snotlout were catching up fast. Gasping and spluttering, Hiccup pushed himself to his one foot and hopped twice before falling back down. His chest burned, a white-hot pain he hadn't quite experienced before. His head throbbed. Crawling pathetically, he dragged himself farther into the clearing before he felt the hands grab hold of his vest from behind.

"Gotcha!" Snotlout cried, a crazed happiness clinging to his words. Hiccup let loose a terrified cry and twisted under the weight of the hands as they dragged him up into the air.

"What's the matter, cripple, lost your leg?" The sneer was directly beside his ear, drawing another cry out of Hiccup's small chest.

"Ah! No, stop, lemmego!" He flailed, his small fists punching the air in an attempt to free himself. Snotlout laughed and shook him violently before Hiccup dropped out of his vest and collapsed back to the ground.

"Ah, is the little girl crying?" Snotlout laughed cruelly, "Where's your dragon now, cripple?"

--x--

Toothless turned sharply, releasing the buildup of heat and gases from his chest directly into the Nightmare's face. The red scaly thing reared back, releasing a pained roar before falling back to his feet. It clambered to its clawed feet, wings fluttering in rage and anticipation for battle, but as it turned back toward the Night Fury, it found nothing.

Toothless had no time to waste on such petty matters. How could another dragon engage him now? His human was missing, in danger, dead! For all the Night Fury knew, Hiccup was drawing his last timid breath as he raced through the forest. His huge scaled feet pounded the dirt, the boulders, the plants. He pushed up off of a tree trunk and dove for a sturdy branch, landing on it and pushing off in one motion. The limb snapped in two just as his weight left it, as did the next branch and then next. As he moved higher, there was less to slow him down, and so he moved faster.

It was around the twelfth branch that he heard it: the faint, terrified cry of Hiccup. His hearth thumped harder inside his cavernous chest as he raced onward, opening his mouth wide to release a roar he didn't know he was holding back.

He - Hiccup - was near the cliffs. And he wasn't alone, not if the Nightmare that had snagged him back in the woods and Hiccup was still yelling. Quickly running out of sturdy trees as he neared his destination, Toothless spread his wings and lifted upward for a brief, precious minute. The tunnel of air carried him long enough for him to focus on the ground below. Pale green eyes scanned the forest in a panic fit only to a dragon, finally reaching the cliffs ahead. Nothing, nothing, trees, more nothing - Hiccup! There, with another human creature!

Suddenly, the wind failed him, and Toothless felt the weightlessness of flight drawn away. Flopping, he released another roar and plummeted back through the trees, his limbs flailing before he found traction against some low, sturdy branches. Again, he pushed off, even more driven to reach his charge.

--x--

The thick tow of a boot connected hard with Hiccup's side, this time the opposite of the side that had been kicked before. It threw him around onto his back, lying mere feet from the cliff. He coughed, gasping, and opened his eyes wide only to find Snotlout diving onto him. His landing was awkward and hasty, and his weight produced a grotesque snap from somewhere along Hiccup's left arm. A shrill scream of pain hurtled out of the boy's chest as Snotlout straddled him and pushed his hands down onto Hiccup's, pinning them above his head harshly. The crushing grip was enough to snap Hiccup's index and middle finger on his left hand, drawing forth another scream.

Snotlout was panting hard, so much adrenaline pumping through him that his head reeled from the sheer thrill of it all. Finally, he stopped and looked at his victim, looked at the tears streaming down his face, his flushed cheeks, his emerald eyes opening and closing as his mouth contorted in pain. He looked so weak, pathetic, helpless. He looked so fragile.

He looked beautiful.

As the thought crept into the haze of Snotlout's mind, he blinked. His face fell blank for a brief moment, considering the alien thought with nothing short of astonishment. B-... Beautiful? Why had he thought that...?

"Sn-Sn-Snot-" Hiccup was, for lack of a less fitting term, hiccupping, "-Stop! Please, get off!"

To Snotlout's horror, it all made sense. The jealousy, the irrational hate, the desperate thought that he needed Astrid. He didn't even really like her, now that he thought if it. She was a bitch. With every pass he made, she made a more compelling point of turning him down. He knew she didn't like him, and for it he had given up liking her, but he couldn't stop trying to get her; after all, who else could he like?

"Snotlout!" Hiccup was pleading, the pain of his injuries driving him further to tears. He hated crying; it wasn't Viking-like at all. But something about the way Snotlout was looking at him terrified him, and along with the pain, he couldn't help it.

Snotlout's face shifted from astonishment to a glare that darkened with each heaving breath he took. What was he thinking? No way did he think anything near that with Hiccup! He was a pathetic little-... Little... Crippledfag!

The larger male drew as much air into his lungs as he could and released it a menacing, feral roar. With one twist of his body, with all his muscles contracting in perfect harmony, he lurched to his left and flung Hiccup directly up and over the edge of the cliff.

He stumbled to his feet and stood at the edge of the rock face, his eyes watching the boy fall farther and farther away.

"Toothless!"

The scream echoed up passed him as Hiccup plunged, practically head first, into the freezing, frothing waters below. There was a horrible pause as Snotlout scanned the waves before a mop of brown hair burst up out of the water. He could hear, just faintly, the spluttering and coughing before another cry for his dragon made its way out of Hiccup's mouth.

Snotlout was daring to lean forward when a blur of black shot passed him, barreling downward into the icy ocean. Stumbling, the bulking Viking looked with wide eyes as Toothless shot into the water several feet from Hiccup's thrashing form, before the human vanished beneath the waves. With a racing heart, Snotlout watched the water below for a long moment before the Night Fury shot back out of the waves, his short front limbs wrapped tightly around Hiccup's limp form.

Unable to bare the situation, Snotlout turned on his heal, and ran, stopping only to snag Hiccup's prosthetic leg.

--x--

This chapter... did not turn out the way I thought it would. I wantedthis to happen, you see, but normally what I want to write and what I actually write never parallel each other. So I'm very happy with this. And don't worry about when the next update will come; I wouldn't leave you guys hanging for long. D:

Please review!