Chapter 3

Hiccup sat with the side of his face against my neck, and we enjoyed the day together. I flew lazily south, following the Viking fleet, riding the wind like an eagle, wings taut, balancing on the draughts.

When we came to a scattering of high rocks jutting up out of the water, we flew between them and around them, chasing seagulls and doing a few more dives, just for fun. Sometimes we flew so low that when I angled my wings, I could touch the water, and sometimes we flew so high that the top of Hiccup's head brushed the clouds. Sometimes we flew close to the chief's fleet, weaving in between the towering masts, sometimes we flew ahead so far that we had to turn around, for fear of losing our way, and other times we fell behind so much that Hiccup couldn't see the ships at all, and I could only see black smudges on the horizon. It was an uneven pace, perfect for journeys that weren't too long and weren't too short.

As the day wore on, I began to notice more Viking ships gathering around our fleet. I accelerated, until I could make out the designs on their sails.

These designs did nothing to improve my suspicions; in fact, they made them worse. Bright blue Nadders impaled on swords and spears glared up at me from their white canvas backgrounds.

I growled, supposing these to be attacking pirates, and drew a deep breath, ready to blow billows of fire.

"No, Toothless!" Hiccup sat up suddenly and put his hand on the top of my head, between my ears. "They have friendly colours up. Don't attack unless they do!"

I dove closer to the ships, ready and waiting. The lead ship of the new fleet was brightly coloured. Gazing up at us were all the Vikings in the ship. They pointed, and with satisfaction, I heard one or two whisper, "Night Fury!" in awe. Most of the men reached for their weapons.

"Don't attack!" Called Hiccup urgently. "We're friends. Don't attack."

The only Viking who did not stare up at me with awe was a girl with extremely short brown hair. Sitting near the prow, she looked at me with a disdainful twist of the mouth. Her green eyes sparkled malevolently.

I wasn't satisfied that these men were harmless. Who were they, and what did they want?

I flew beside their ship for about fifteen minutes, scrutinizing every detail. It was made of dark, dark wood that shone in the midday sun like polished ebony. It might've seemed beautiful to a human – but the wood reminded me of charred bones, burnt black, carved and shining, but nonetheless a hideous sight. Finally I left their ship's side and veered away to the right, gaining altitude until the ship was a tiny dot far below us.

After we had flown for hours, Hiccup raised his head again, and pointed to a small island, covered in sheets of stone and rising to a rounded point. It was patterned with stunted trees. I could see Stoick's ships moored on the shoreline.

"There it is," he said.

We landed in a small dip in the stony ground. It was beaten by sea spray and whipped with salty winds, but speckled with shrubs and one or two spruce and a small pine. Rough grass spiked up from cracks in the rocks, and a tiny stream of water from melting snow and ice cascaded down the jagged edges of the boulders – all in all, a pleasant place.

Hiccup dismounted and threw his cloak around his shoulders.

He stumbled slightly on the uneven ground, and I quickly bent down to support him.

As Hiccup straightened, wincing at the pain in his leg, someone rounded the corner of the rock formation.

Not knowing whom it was, I stepped quickly in front of Hiccup, and raised my wings, ready to protect him with my life. He was more vulnerable then most humans, being unable to run, since he had lost one of his feet. I was the one who had to be there for him. But then I saw who had come into view, and I lowered my wings again, but tentatively.

It was Stoick the Vast. I knew Hiccup trusted him, because he was his father. And I suppose you could say I trusted him. I did my best, but it's hard to forgive a man who chains you up and growls in your ear, "Lead us home, devil," because he wants to locate your nest and kill all of your race that he finds there.

Stoick's face bore a flicker of similar mistrust – just a flicker. I had saved his only son's life, after all, but one does not shed the mantle of a life filled with Dragon Blood lightly. If hundreds of dragons were slaughtered at your hands, you don't abandon the practice without a second thought. It had taken Stoick a lot of second thoughts to get to where he was right now.

But what else could I do, but fold my wings all the way back, and look at Stoick, waiting for him to speak?

He had come to tell us what to do. "Hiccup, light a fire and make yourself comfortable. Not all of the chiefs have arrived. When they have, I'll come and get you. Then you can tell your story to them."

Hiccup nodded.

I swooped down to the sea, and after only a few minutes, found four fish. I gathered them in my claws, and ascended back to Hiccup's hiding place. He now had a fire pit, which I lit with a single puff of flames. Above the fire pit, he constructed a grill of green branches, and after cleaning them, grilled the fish. He gathered some of the flavourful plants that were growing in the clearing, and scattered them on the fish. He then collected some brown mushrooms.

When they were ready, I snapped up two fish.

Hiccup is a good cook, I thought, savouring the flavour. But why humans eat other, tasteless plants is beyond me. I watched Hiccup devouring the mushrooms. He offered me some, but I growled.

When he was done a fish, he threw me the other, and, his cloak over him, curled on a grassy stretch of the ground. Presently, he drifted off into a light sleep.

I curled around him, my wings over him, shielding him from the sea spray. I did not sleep, but kept watch for any sign of danger.

In my mind, I ran over the day. Peace and contentment had been swept away when I had seen that girl on the Nadder ship. Hiccup hadn't been bothered, but something about her had stirred my fear and suspicion. She wasn't an ordinary little girl. And if her ships had landed with Stoick's and she was on the island, there was no way I was going to fall asleep, and leave my rider vulnerable and alone in the cold world.

If any evil ever came to Hiccup because of my lack of vigilance, I don't know what I'd do. I'd die of a broken heart before I could do any more harm.

And anyway, I was nocturnal, so it made no difference to me whether I slept or stayed awake in the night. I had adjusted my sleeping patterns to fit Hiccup's, but I still spent every spare hour in the day asleep and most hours of the night awake.

I shivered, and moved my wing to cover Hiccup's small body. If anyone wanted to get to him, they'd have to go through me.

I wasn't normally this paranoid, but that Nadder girl creeped me out. She was only about fourteen, but she already had the look of a hardened killer, and I wouldn't be betting that the only things she had slain were dragons.

The fire Hiccup had made sputtered and died. I was surprised to see how dark the night had become, and my eyes refocused to adjust to the deepening twilight. Over the faint sound of Hiccup's breathing, other night noises whispered. A wolf howled. Bushes swayed in the wind. A dragon cried mournfully in the gloom, and I thought of being alone, without a human to share my life with.

Then a tidal wave of black memories came raining down in my head, memories I had often tried to forget.

Fire surrounding me in the hive. Never-ending slavery. I'd never had any parents to help me, so I'd hunt for hours as a chick, afraid to return with nothing. Sometimes I hunted for days without finding more then a bird. Then slowly growing up, returning with a deer, for the first time not having to dodge the evil teeth of the queen dragon, the Green Death.

But more then the slavery, the loneliness. No family, no friends, fending for myself from the moment my eggshell broke open around me and exposed me to the real world. Everyone – even the humans – had always feared me. Night Fury, the unknown terror. After I had realized that no one wanted me around, I had kept to myself, only coming out when the Green Death commanded it.

Nobody cared if I lived or died. Had anyone seen me get shot down, or noticed that I hadn't come back? And if they had, had they mourned me as a friend or as a weapon?

I couldn't go back to that life, even if the hive structure had been broken and no one feared me. I wasn't complete without Hiccup, and I never had been.

A firefly sparkled in the grass near my head, rising into the sky and twisting in a figure eight. Another followed it, and the two flew side by side for a moment. A third flew up, and they circled all together.

I sighed, and accidentally incinerated all three.