Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the long wait, but college is such a time-consumer. This chapter is relatively shorter than the others, but I assure you that all chapters will at least over a thousand words.

Thank you to those that followed and favorited. Reviews are welcome and appreciated.

Chapter 3: Goodbye...NOT!

Toothless's eyes had fluttered open when he heard a loud "OW!" resound near his ears. As he awakened from his dreams of fresh cod, the first thing he noticed was that Hiccup was awake and pushing up against his chest.

At first, Toothless thought Hiccup was giving him an overly-sentimental hug, which he himself never really minded. It was cute of his rider and felt very nice.

The nice feelings disappeared the minute the smell of dog entered his nose. Without moving his body he secretly gazed down to where the smell was emanating from, and he saw a grey-furred wolf that, for whatever reason, looked guilty. While the Night Fury was not the best expert on other animals' emotions, it knew enough to know what the wolf was feeling according to its body language.

The ears were down, its tail was lowered, but surprisingly, the hazel eyes were what gave it away and told a lot. They were currently wide with what looked like shock and then creased together in regret.

A sudden intake of breath caught the dragon's attention, and, while remaining silent, Toothless eyes fell down to Hiccup, who was currently holding and examining his hand.

The Fury's eyes widened. His human's left hand looked injured and his rider was currently rubbing it to ease the pain he was in. The Fury couldn't smell any blood, but he guessed the hand would probably have some bruises.

The wolf's sudden movement caught his attention, and at the same time he felt his rider scramble his way up to his back.

Realizing that the wolf was the only one here that could have caused his rider injury, he instantly picked himself up onto all fours (being careful not to throw off his rider, who gasped and hung on tightly at the movement) and snarled right at the wolf's face.

The wolf stopped dead. It knew that the dragon was faster than itself, and it would have been foolish to try and pick a fight with it.

A fight between a full-grown dragon and an inexperienced wolf.

It would not be a contest.

Instead, the wolf did the only thing it could do: lower itself to the ground, whine pathetically, and hope to Odin that the dragon would spare it.

Toothless meanwhile, growled approvingly, glad that this thing was smart enough to know its place.

"Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed, having barely gotten over the surprise of the dragon's sudden awakening. "You scared me! Are you okay?" He asked concernedly. Toothless warbled an affirmative, and then gave a questioning rumble to Hiccup.

"Don't worry, Toothless. I'm alright. My hand hurts, but other than that, I should be fine." Hiccup said reassuringly.

Toothless looked at the hand that was currently rubbing his frill. The hand had a bright red bruise, and the teeth marks that ran across it confirmed his suspicions about the wolf. He growled dangerously at the canine, which was now lowering itself down into the sand even more, looking as though it just wanted to bury itself and vanish from sight.

"No Toothless! Stop! You're scaring it! Bad dragon!" shouted Hiccup. Toothless winced from the sharp tug on his ears. Why was his human concerned for the thing? It damn near bit his hand off!

Hiccup, sensing the Fury's confused thoughts on the matter, explained quickly about what had occurred before the dragon woke up. He told of his waking up, only to meet the wolf that seemed friendly a few moments ago. How the animal acted domesticated until it abruptly attacked him and how he had attempted to disarm himself of his knife in an attempt to calm the wolf down. (This revelation earned him a smack on the face from the Night Fury's ear. The wolf let out what sounded like barking laughter at the scene… at least, until Toothless growled at it again.)

"Anyways..." said Hiccup, "Let's just get home. My dad is probably worried about me and wondering where you are, especially since you broke his special flower vase this morning." Hiccup pointed out with half-lidded eyes. The dragon rumbled in laughter. The wolf, meanwhile, felt the guilt inside it relax a little, feeling that the boy had maybe forgiven the attack. It wasn't sure about the dragon though, but the boy had vouched for it. The wolf wished it could apologize and explain its reasons for the perceived attack, but it would be better anyways for the boy to think of it as an animal who couldn't make up its mind on whether humans were friend or foe.

As both the boy and 'Toothless' (wasn't that a weird name for a dragon with obviously sharp teeth) turned to set off for wherever they came from, the boy paused, then turned and waved his hand in an awkward goodbye towards the wolf.

To Hiccup's surprise, the wolf raised its foreleg and waved its arm paw back and forth. It was clumsy, but it got the message of goodbye through to the boy.

Hiccup was confused. Was the canine saying goodbye to him? Who had taught that to the wolf? He guessed he would never really know, especially since he would probably never see it again. Shaking his head, the boy strapped himself to the saddle.

And with one strong thrust of the Night Fury's wings, both dragon and rider took off.

The wolf watched for a moment before shaking its white fur of the sand, then turned and began trotting jubilantly towards the jungle, happy that the boy was finally safe from the mistress. Still, it wished that it could have spent more time with him and gotten to know his-

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

*Splash!*

The wolf whirled around at the sudden noise. Then its jaw dropped in horror as it saw both the dragon and rider struggling to get out of the water. Luckily, they had landed only a few yards away in the shallow part of the ocean, so they would make it onto dry land in no time.

The wolf didn't understand. What happened? Did the mistress do something to the island to prevent them from leaving? Did the dragon forget how to fly? What was the problem?

It noticed that the boy seemed to be having trouble keeping afloat. He flailed his arms around, keeping himself barely above water. Toothless meanwhile, was attempting to keep himself upright after hitting the water with a nosedive. He had landed further away in the water than Hiccup, and was slightly dazed from the unexpected loss of flight he had experienced in mid-air.

The wolf, seeing as how it would take a while for the dragon to reach his rider, ran down the beach to help. Jumping into the ocean with a loud splash, the canine proceeded to quickly doggie paddle towards the boy.