A/N: Just a note, but I'm not including Heather Report. It sort of retreads some of the ground in the story and it's too late to go back and write stuff in the early chapters dealing with the aftermath of the episodes. I also hate how Hiccup picked up the idiot ball with not trusting Astrid saying that she straight up saw a strange girl they didn't know talking with a mortal enemy. (Bad writing there and I'm not digging the show as much now.) So, in the fic's universe, it just never happened.


Stratoc: Glad you feel that way. A slightly darker episode of the show was the feel I was going for. And haha, you'll find out what happened to the REAL Bertha soon enough.

Cyclone20: There will definitely be some more Astrid/Hiccup romance. Keep an eye out!

Mikazuki Mitsukai: A couple of your questions will be answered this chapter and I'm glad the creepiness of the scene where Hiccup faces "Bertha" came through. It was actually pretty brave for him to walk through the door of a very temperamental Viking when a possibly-strange situation was going on. Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way Hiccup hoped. You're right about the Red Riding Hood vibe-that was intentional.

Spiffswishy: Yeah, I pretty much wanted the awkward to be powerful enough to give off Awkward-Radiation with that scene.

Kumiho-Kitsune: Thank you for sticking around to read more of my stuff!


Chapter 4


"Bong!" Phlegma's voice wasn't so much a sound as a force, compelling the Vikings of Hopeless to come out of their houses and into the street. Astrid only wished she'd someday be able to have the presence of Vikings like Phlegma.

As it stood, she was there by Phlegma's side with her axe in her hand, not held threateningly, but making it clear there was a potentially hostile situation in the works. In her other hand she held Hiccup's leg. Part of her wanted to be out there looking for Hiccup but she also wanted to be here to help work out the puzzle of what happened. So that her dragon wasn't grounded and useless, Ruffnut was flying Stormfly at the moment with Tuffnut flying Barf and Belch by himself in the search to find Hiccup. The task of flying back home to Berk and telling the Chief what happened had been relegated to a very unhappy Snotlout.

"What's going on?" asked Ingrid.

"Hiccup is missing," declared Phlegma. "We wish to have words with Bong. Where is he?"

"Here, I'm right here," said Bong, making his way out, leaning on his heavy staff. He was half-dressed, clearly having been in the middle of settling down for the night. "What's happened?"

"Hiccup is missing," said Phlegma, "and so is your chieftainess. The door was open and when Astrid went in, the house was empty."

"But what makes you think there was some sort of abduction?"

"We didn't say we thought it was an abduction," said Astrid, some of her suspicions raised.

"You'd hardly wake the whole village if you didn't think the boy was in danger somehow," Bong pointed out logically.

Astrid frowned and held up Hiccup's leg. "This was left behind."

The Bog-Burglars all exchanged worried looks and started whispering amongst themselves. They understood the seriousness of someone with a false leg having left it behind.

"What's happened here is clear," said Bong. "Bertha was ill. If she wasn't there either then whoever it was must have kidnapped them both."

"Bertha? Kidnapped? Even while sick, that's impossible!" said Ug.

"She's been terribly ill. Languishing, really," said Bong. "She wouldn't let me near her for me to be sure, but it's entirely possible she was weak enough to be taken. We have to find them, we have to save them both. But who could have done this?"

That was the question of the hour.


Snotlout sooo did not want to be doing this. Especially if Stoick asked how Hiccup had been kidnapped because then he'd either have to tell him the truth or he'd have to lie and then deal with how angry he'd be when someone like Astrid told him the truth.

And it wasn't even his and Tuffnut's fault! So maybe they should have kept better watch but Hiccup was taken out through the back door of the house anyway, right? Who's to say that didn't happen silently? Even if they'd stayed close by they might not have heard anything, right?

Perhaps luckily for Snotlout, he didn't have to travel as far as he thought he'd have to. As he was flying, Hookfang's head darted this way and that, as if he were listening for something. Then he veered off in an entirely different direction than he'd been going, taking a hard right.

"Hey! Hey, Hookfang, where are you going? We have to go back to Berk! Hookfang!"

The dragon didn't listen, flying as fast as he could in the direction he'd chosen. But then, after a bit of time, he saw why. In the distance were two figures riding on a very large dragon.

They were bickering.

"-could have sworn we're supposed to take a right at Death Straits."

"It was a left. We're on the right track, Gobber."

"If it was a left, wouldn't we be on the left track?"

"If you make one more stupid joke you're swimming home."

"Hey!" Snotlout called out waving his hand as Hookfang flew them in closer. "Hey, what are you doing out here?"

"Snotlout?" Thornado hovered in the air so Stoick could talk with the teen. "We came to, ah...well."

"Stoick here got nervous about Hiccup handling it all, even though Phlegma's with him. And everyone pulled together fairly quickly to get the fleet equipped this year, Bick and Bock worked out their differences on their own, and I had a few productive days in the forge without getting interrupted by any dragons in need of a good tooth-pulling. With you lot traveling by ship, we got most of it done probably before you even got to Hopeless."

Stoick coughed awkwardly into a massive hand. "So, on account of not being as busy as I thought I'd be, I figure it would be a good idea to-"

"-to make sure Hiccup hasn't screwed the pooch yet."

"-to be here to show Hiccup the ropes myself," Stoick insisted, turning to glare over his shoulder at Gobber. "I knew with Thornado I'd get to Hopeless only a few days after you all arrived by ship. Gobber came along because he's got a ladyfriend on the island."

"Aye, she's well worth the trip."

"But why are you out here? Were you heading back to Berk?" Stoick asked Snotlout.

Moment of truth.

"I was coming to get you," said Snotlout. "Things got all messed up."

The look of concern that passed over Stoick's face was severe enough that Snotlout decided he could find out about the watch thing later.

"Messed up how?" Stoick asked.

"Hiccup's gone missing and the chieftainess of Hopeless is gone, too."

The new look on Stoick's face definitely meant Snotlout wasn't telling him the truth anytime soon.


Spending hours in a stinking sack with his air mostly cut off wasn't exactly a party. Shortly after Alvin rowed them out to sea, Hiccup was unloaded and dragged onto what was probably a longship. By then, his body was aching from being knocked around and forced to stay in one position for that long, but that barely held a candle to his mind, which was racing as he tried to figure out what to do next.

The odds were not good. He was being sailed to who-knew-where and the others apparently hadn't spotted the Outcasts' longship yet. Hiccup knew there was a chance they might never spot it, especially with the clouds of fog that clung to the island of Hopeless as stubbornly and persistently as the Vikings that lived there. That meant that rescue was probably not happening, which meant it was up to Hiccup to rescue himself. That would have been daunting enough with two functioning legs, but without his prosthetic, he knew he didn't have a chance.

Of course, none of it mattered at all if he couldn't get air soon. It barely permeated the sack and because of it he was baking in his own body heat and half-suffocating.

Muffled noises through his gag were the only way he could communicate the problem but one of Alvin's lackeys seemed to pick it up.

"'Ey boss, I think 'e can't breathe. We need 'im breathin', roight?"

"Open it up and tie him to the mast," ordered Alvin and then Hiccup was thanking the gods as the sack was opened up and fresh air rushed in to his greedy lungs and cooled the skin on his sweat-soaked face. His gratitude lasted all of five seconds before he was dragged by the wrists over to the mast.

"No no, not sitting. Stand him up."

"Ain't he going to get tired, boss? Only one leg and all?"

"Might as well give him a taste of what's in store for him," grinned Alvin, walking over to Hiccup as they stood him on one foot and tied him to the mast. The only reason he didn't flop over was because of the ropes holding him up. Standing was out, but glaring, though, that he could do.

"Shame about the leg, lad. It'd make some of this easier for you. Y'see, there's all kinds of ways to get a man to talk about somethin' he doesn't want to talk about."

Hiccup's eyes widened, but then they narrowed again in defiance.

"Some of them are bloody as anything, but we can't be having that, can we? I enjoy the blood eagle as much as the next Viking, this isn't about making you suffer, lad. This is about information and getting you to realize you're much better off giving it than keepin' your mouth shut. We can't have you dyin' on us right in the middle, but that's why it's a good thing not everything that loosens a man's tongue actuallyloosens his tongue."

Alvin undid the gag around Hiccup's mouth and the younger Viking shrugged his head so that he could wipe his face on his vest to clean up the drool.

"So, that's it then, you think you can get the dragon-training knowledge out of me with torture?"

"I could get anything I wanted out of you with it!" Alvin said. "I could get you cursing your own father, disowning your dragon, and betraying your tribe if that was the result I were lookin' for. That's the beauty of it, lad."

"I'm not going to tell you anythingand my friends are going to find me. Any minute now."

Alvin laughed. "In this fog? Not a chance! No, what's going to happen is you're either going to realize what's good for you and tell me what I want to know, or you're not and you're going to tell me what I want to know anyway. And do you know why?"

"Oh, I'm dying to hear it."

"Because I outsmarted you. Not used to that, are you-little runt of a thing surrounded by Vikings strong as me. You're a bright one, outsmarted ol' Alvin and everything. Had to be clever just to get along, didn't you? Thing is, not all us Vikings with strength are lacking in the brain department. I knew if I replaced Bertha I could work the Bog-Burglars into conflicts with your dragons, I knew Stoick would be too busy to come himself, and I knew that meant there was a good chance he'd send you along."

"Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"My point, lad, is that I'm not called Alvin the treacherous for nothin'! Treachery is nothin' without cunning and I've got plenty of it."

Alvin leaned forward and jabbed Hiccup in the chest.

"And that," he said, "means you're not going to think you're way out of this. Not this time. You, my boy, are outmatched."

With mounting dread, Hiccup realized that Alvin was right. He was outnumbered, outmatched in physical strength, and apparently he'd been outsmarted. Did he even have a chance? He'd certainly spend all his time trying to think his way out of this but the odds he'd be able to do it were not good.

"You get it now, I see! It's all over your face."

"I'm-I'm not going to talk," Hiccup insisted, lifting his chin in defiance. "No matter what you do. I'm not-I'm-"

He was scared. There were times that he jumped right into action and stuffed the fear down deep but standing there, tied up and waiting for the journey to end and waiting for what came at the end of it, he'd never been more afraid in his life, not even when fighting a dragon the size of a mountain.

That was a sad state of affairs for the world, wasn't it? That a human could be more frightening and awful than a dragon the size of a mountain?

"We will see about that now, won't we, but just so you understand how serious I am-" Quick as lightning thrown from the hammer of Thor himself, Alvin drew a small blade from his belt and threw it at Hiccup's face.

Hiccup let out a little yell of alarm-and of pain-as he felt his cheek sliced open the moment the knife thunked into the mast next to his face. It was just a nick. He could tell from the blood he felt running down his cheek; it wasn't quite enough to be alarming. Alvin went over and pulled the knife out of the wood with ease and held it up to Hiccup's throat.

"-there's a little taste of what's to come. If you do make the unfortunate choice of keepin' your mouth shut, lad, then get ready for it to be less of a taste and more something like a feast."

Alvin backed away and as Hiccup stood there, panting and bleeding, the only coherent thought that could be summoned into his panicked mind was:

I am so screwed.


It seemed to Astrid that everything converged all at once.

"We're bringing our dragons and you will not harm them," Phlegma has informed the Bog-Burglars, without much argument to the contrary, and then they'd blown their one ship's horn to signal their other ship and to call back the dragon-riders.

Both responded at about the same time. Incidentally, that was also when Stoick came riding in on his dragon, the majestic image ruined only by Gobber tossing his hand (and hook) up in the air in delight.

"Ingrid! Wonderful to see a lovely face like yours in the middle of complete diplomatic catastrophe!"

Ingrid couldn't stop a grin from coming over her face, but her arms were crossed and an eyebrow was raised. "Gobber."

Stoick, on the other hand, jumped off his dragon before he'd even landed.

"What happened? Have you found Hiccup?"

"No luck," said a worried Fishlegs as he landed. "The fog's just too thick. We could've passed within feet of their ship and not seen it. How come you got here so fast?"

"We were already on the way. Things got tidied up back home faster than we'd thought." Stoick went on, "How did this even happen?"

"It's a long story," said Astrid, "but the short version is Bertha was sick, Hiccup went to go talk to Bertha in her hut because she refused to talk to anyone, and then both of them were gone. Hiccup's vest and leg were left behind and we know he can't get anywhere-"

"Without his false leg." Stoick winced and clenched his hands into fists, waving them in a gesture of frustration. He was always quite articulate with his fists.

"Has anyone managed to track anything? Were there footprints?" asked Gobber.

"One pair and they led to the woods," Tuffnut said. "We lost them for a while but found some on a beach. We figured that was where they launched a small ship from, so we've been searching around that area ever since, but we didn't find anything."

"He has to still be nearby," said Stoick said. "They'd be going by ship-"

He stopped. They all stopped as Toothless came bounding out of the recently-arrive ship. He looked pleased to no longer be cooped up and it was obvious to all of him who he was eager to see after being separated for a little while. Nosing around and obviously searching for someone, he seemed disheartened when he couldn't find him.

"Toothless," said Astrid and the dragon bounded over to her, pressing his nose in near her fondly. She placed her hand on his nose. "Toothless, Hiccup's gone. He was taken by someone."

The dragon's visible excitement faded.

"We're going to find him. I promise."

The dragon looked around frantically, sniffing the air, as if to confirm that what Astrid was saying was true, and they could all see the moment that Toothless realized she was telling the truth. The Night Fury turned around in a panicked circle, then let out the most miserable, pitiful whine in all of existence, a crooning worried noise that had the same keening tones that one might find in the voice of a parent missing their child or a sibling missing their sibling.

"By the gods, it can understand what she says, can't it," said Og, amazed. "And it's worried about the boy."

"We told you," said Fishlegs. "Dragons can get along great with humans. They have very strong protective instincts once they start to trust you. Toothless is very, very close to Hiccup."

"Speaking of trust," said Astrid, turning to face the Bog-Burglars, "we're wondering if we should still trust you. We found what might have been your chief's ship. It was washed up on an island and there were no signs of it being destroyed by a storm or by dragons."

"There were marks from grappling hooks," Fishlegs put in, "and burn marks that are consistent with the use of catapults."

"I don't understand," said Ingrid. "Are you suggesting Bertha was lying about her ship being wrecked and swimming back to our island?"

"She what?" said Stoick, still trying to catch up.

"The reason Bertha was hiding herself away because she was sick from supposedly surviving her ship being wrecked by a storm and swimming back to Hopeless," Fishlegs explained quickly. "Bong was her go-between so she could still communicate with the Bog-Burglars because he's a doctor."

"Even if Bertha wasn't lying, someonewas lying," said Astrid, glaring at Bong.

"I swear to you, I told everyone exactly what she told me," the doctor insisted.

"Bong is a friend to this island," said Ingrid. "He's risked his life when we were ill with plague to see us through it."

"It's possible he's telling the truth," Fishlegs said. "Bertha was always hiding in the dark, right?"

"Yes," answered Bong. "Always."

"What if Bertha never really came back to the island?" suggested Fishlegs. "What if the person that Bong spoke to was an imposter? Someone that wrecked Bertha's ship specifically to tell the Bog-Burglars that story and take Bertha's place?"

Bong rubbed at his chin. "To tell the truth, I didn't get a much better look at her than Og did. She wouldn't let me examine her, the curtains were always drawn, and her room was always dark. She hardly spoke and when she did it was in barely more than a whisper. "

"If it was an imposter," said Fishlegs, "it makes sense why he or she'd use him as a go-between. He hasn't lived as long on the island as everyone else and didn't know her as well. He wouldn't notice if the imposter said things that were out of character."

"Here I'd thought it was because she trusted me," said Bong, looking taken aback by this knowledge, upset that what he'd believed was trust in his capabilities had been... "In reality, I was chosen because whoever it was thought I was enough of a fool to not realize the truth."

"Alright, alright, so if it was an imposter then who was it? What were they hoping to accomplish?" asked Ingrid.

"Clearly, they were trying to deal damage to both our tribes," said Stoick. "Whoever it was, they were most likely a mutual enemy of ours."

Astrid's face twisted up into one of concentration as she recalled something she'd heard Hiccup say on the ship ride over.

"...Don't the Outcasts try to raid your islands?"

"Alvin the Treacherous is responsible for this," came a commanding voice off to the side, and standing there, dripping wet, seaweed clinging to the spikes of her armor-and as hairy as ever-was the real chieftainess of the Bog-Burglars, Bertha the Boisterous.


Before long, Hiccup's leg was aching terribly. Standing with all his body weight on one foot was exactly the torture Alvin said it would be, but Hiccup didn't let any reactions to the pain pass over his face. He tried to just focus on his breathing, taking in air slowly and letting it out.

That wasn't enough though. He tried letting the ropes take his whole weight, but they cut into his skin, even through his clothes.

"Uncomfortable?" Alvin said airily.

Hiccup glared.

"Good."

"This isn't going to work," Hiccup said, flexing his toes in his boot, trying to stretch out the cramp that was forming in the arch of his foot. "It's just going to make my friends mad when they find out what you've been doing."

"Oh no, not your friends! Anything but your friends gettin' mad at me!" said Alvin, holding a hand to his chest. "I don't know how I can handle the fear!"

"Not really any good learning how to train dragons if we have ours set all your men on fire."

"Not really any good trying to set all my men on fire when they're on dragons themselves, is it?" Alvin said, and then he took out a spyglass and stared off into the distance.

"Land ho!" called a man up in the crow's nest.

"Gag him and get him back in the sack," said Alvin. "Is the other ship ready?"

"Yes, sir," answered one of his men. "Has our new friend been informed what will happen to him if he doesn't follow every single order we tell him?"

"Yes, sir, he's been properly terrorized, sir."

"Good."

As the ropes were cut and Hiccup was manhandled away from the mast, he caught a glimpse, far off, of a ship floating out in the water near an island.

"Oh no," he said, when he recognized the ship, but then he was gagged again and stuffed back into the cramped dark.


Time was short and the light was fading, so the exchange of information between the rest of the group and Bertha was brisk. Bertha had overheard some of her conversation so they quickly informed her of the rest.

"Well, Alvin got one part right. I did manage to swim back. It just took me longer than all that. He should have killed me when he had the chance, but he took a moment to gloat-even said my death would be for a greater purpose-and I managed to get a good shot in, but he knocked me over the side after that. Held my breath and stayed under long enough to fool him into thinking I'd drowned, I suppose. You know I'm the last to run from a fight, but my men were dead-"

The Bog-Burglars had assumed this, but they all hung their heads in respectful mourning and Bertha paused to do the same, before beginning to speak again.

"-My men were dead and my ship was sinking. I knew that to retaliate, I had to get back to Hopeless somehow. So I swam underwater until I was out far enough for the fog to hide me-for once, I had a reason not to curse the bloody stuff. Then it was swimming from island to island ever since, surviving on whatever I could find. Luckily, I know these islands better than the back of my hand."

"Are you sure it was Alvin himself that impersonated you?" asked Fishlegs. "Did he say anything about it?"

"No, but of all of the Outcasts, he's the one that's got the build for it-and the beard," said Bertha, rubbing her own luxurious one. "And if it was Stoick's son that was taken, no doubt this would be personal enough for him to take care of it himself."

She gave Stoick a nod and he nodded in return, leaving the Berk teenagers perplexed. What made it so personal?

"We'll send out our fastest ships, Stoick, to search at sea level, while your people take to the air. We'll find your son-and we'll make that traitorous no-good sneak of a Viking pay for what he's done."

Bertha held out her hand to Stoick and he gripped it firmly.

"And to think our tribes were ever set against one another!" said Stoick. "My ancestors, may they rest in peace, were short-sighted for not seeing the allies they could have in the fearless and steadfast Bog-Burglars."

The Bog-Burglars all looked incredibly heartened at that, with Og shouting: "Hear hear!"

"He always does know how to work a crowd," Gobber muttered under his breath to Ingrid, who couldn't hold back a smile.

With that, the various Vikings disbursed to start the search, the teens running back to their dragons and Stoick and Bertha directing their people in how the search was going to go. The two chiefs were in nearly complete agreement on nearly everything and when they disagreed, offered up better ideas to the other.

If only Hiccup could have seen it, Astrid thought. That was what being a chief was about. He'd gone to face Bertha alone to prove himself, even despite being suspicious, when Tuffnut and Snotlout or one of the Bog-Burglars willing to check in on their chief should have gone in with him. When sheshould have gone with him.

She knew Hiccup and she knew why he'd walked into that trap alone: to prove himself. He'd probably done it to try to handle the situation like he thought his father would (when really, Stoick was smart enough to have backup). It had been foolish.

At the same time, knowing how he'd always been treated, and remembering the look on his face when the Bog-Burglars were laughing at him, she couldn't blame him for trying so hard.

Walking over to Stormfly, she looked over and saw Toothless pacing worriedly.

"Sorry, Stormfly, but I think I'm going to let Ruff or someone else fly you again. Toothless will be miserable if he doesn't get to help find Hiccup," Astrid said, patting her Nadder on the nose.

On the ship was Hiccup's gear and thank all the gods, when Astrid looked through it, she realized that he'd packed the pedal his father had used when steering Toothless. It was too big for Astrid, but unlike his usual pedal, at least she'd be able to use it.

"Of course you packed it, Hiccup," she muttered fondly to herself. "Needed to cover all the angles, didn't you."

There was always the potential something bad could happen where someone else would have to ride Toothless and since that was the only way the dragon could fly, Astrid assumed that he wanted to make sure there was a way for someone else to fly him out of a bad situation.

Racing out with the pedal and the rest of Toothless' rig, she ran over to Night Fury and started setting it up. "We're going to have to figure this out as we go, big guy," she said. "But I've watched Hiccup steer you often enough."

Stoick noticed what she was doing and nodded his approval, coming over.

"Astrid, if you're taking Toothless, do you mind if someone else rides your Nadder? We need every dragon in the air."

"As long as they treat her right and as long as she's okay with them, it's fine. Who did you have in mind?"

"One question," said Bertha, walking up to Stoick and nodding respectfully towards the Nadder, a grin of excitement. spreading over her face. "How exactly do I steer this lovely thing?"

Stormfly immediately preened at the compliment.

"Well, getting her to like you is a start," said Astrid. "So far, you're doing just fine at that."


It was dark in the sack, only dim light passing through the holes in the fabric-which was, of course, scratching against his cut cheek uncomfortably. It was starting to throb a little, and he feared he was well on the way towards an infection. It was doubtful that Alvin had kept that knife very clean.

At least maybe he'd get a cool scar out of it? Scars on the face were always attractive in a Viking. It lended a Viking's appearance a bit of mystique and toughness. "How did you get that scar?" people would always ask, and then the Viking could brag about it.

In his case, he'd probably word it more something along the lines of, "I was facing a sworn enemy of my tribe and refused to back down so he threw a knife at my face that I only just barely dodged in time. It was awesome," rather than, "I was an idiot and fell into a trap and a sworn enemy of my tribe cut my face to show me how hopeless my situation was. It was awesome. Except for the part where it wasn't."

Hiccup felt like he was suffocating again but he knew he wouldn't be let out anytime soon, not with what the Outcasts were trying to pull. They couldn't risk him destroying the ruse.

Also, he had a feeling that he wasn't actually suffocating, more that he just maybe felt like he was. From, you know, the sheer bloody-minded panic that he was feeling. His breath hitched in his throat and he tried to keep himself from hyperventilating, because he was pretty sure air wouldn't seep into the sack fast enough to compensate.

Yep, that was panic. Definitely panic. On account of the fact that he'd never felt more powerless and terrified in his life.

Please find me. Please please find me. Please, find me. Please, for the love of all the gods in every pantheon in existence but especially the Norse ones, find me...


Please let us find him. Please please let us find him. Please, gods, let us find him in time...

The litany was never-ending in Astrid's mind as she and the others flew on their search. Far off on one side, she could see Stoick and Gobber on Thornado-or at least his shadow in the fog-and far off on another, she saw Bertha on Stormfly. The chieftainess had taken to dragons like a Scauldron to water and had been very respectful to Stormfly so far. It only increased Astrid's esteem of her. She wished that circumstances were different so that she had more of a chance to talk to her.

Bertha the Boisterous was one of the most renowned chiefs among the tribes that dealt with Berk and beard aside (and it was indeed a very impressive one) she was one of the few female ones. As much as women were respected among the Vikings in their little corner of the world, some of the old traditions still held sway, especially the idea that chiefdom should be passed from father to son. While gaining respect for herself as a Viking hadn't caused Bertha any more problems than the average female Viking, Astrid had heard that she'd carved out respect for herself as a chief by sheer force alone.

Of course, as admirable as Bertha was, it wasn't time to think about fangirling. Astrid had to focus, especially since it was almost dark and since the fog was so thick. Before long, they'd be out of light and they could possibly lose Hiccup forever.

While Bertha was doing fine with her flying, flying Toothless was another matter. It had been rough at first, and even though the two of them had eventually managed, Astrid had the feeling that she'd have trouble with more complicated maneuvers.

Suddenly there was shouting far off and the horn call of one of the ships below.

"Astrid, Ruffnut and Tuffnut have found something!" bellowed Stoick. Astrid turned to pass the message to Bertha, but the chieftainess was already flying in that direction, clearly having heard Stoick's rumbling voice.

Going into a dive with Toothless brought Astrid through the thickest part of the fog and she saw other dragons circling a ship below.

It was a familiar ship with a familiar figure topside.

"Trader Johann?" she muttered to herself.

"Which way, Johann?" asked Stoick.

"They were headed for Outcast Island," said Johann shakily. "Saw them pass me in the fog but as my luck would have it, they didn't see me, thank the stars. Your boy was on board, tied to the mast. That's why I'm so far off course, meself. I was headed to Hopeless to raise the alarm."

"Why would they be heading to Outcast Island? Even with their defenses, they can't hold a candle to the dragons. Going somewhere that obvious is suicide," Gobber pointed out.

"Search me," said Johann. "All I know is that was the direction they were headed."

"Thank you, Johann. My son's life might depend on your information."

That seemed to make Johann even shakier, but that could easily be chalked up to his scare, coming that close to the Outcasts was likely terrifying to a simple trader. "Not a problem at all, your grace. My best wishes towards your son's safe and speedy recovery."

With that, all the riders took to the air again.

"Bertha, can you inform the ships? We're headed for Outcast Island!"

Something about it wasn't sitting right with Astrid, though, something niggling at her instincts, but what else could they do but fly and hope?


Hiccup was shaken awake, roughly, without even remembering when he'd passed out. Then again, it was hard to tell the passing of time when you were tied up in a burlap sack.

He was tossed over someone's shoulder-rather painfully-and carried for a good long while before the person carrying him tossed him to the ground-also painfully.

"Open the gates!"

Carried again. (Ow.)

Dumped again. (Yowch.)

There was the sound of a gate closing behind them and then a door opening and closing and then he was finally freed via being dumped unceremoniously to the ground. The gag was removed and this time he was gasping and choking as he sucked in air. (Blessed air!)

"Wait for it," Alvin said to his second-in-command, Savage.

Wait for what? Hiccup wondered. What were they waiting for-?

Oh.

They were waiting him to notice his surroundings which were full of very unpleasant things. There were unpleasant bladed things and spiky things and things with screws. There were unpleasant things that looked like they were meant to be heated up and put unpleasant places and unpleasant things that looked like they were made to be sat on (that were usually also unpleasantly spiky).

"There it is," said Alvin, of the horrified expression that spontaneously came over Hiccup's face.

Hiccup carefully made that expression go away, even though the fear causing it hadn't.

"The decor could use some work."

"Function over form, you know how it goes," Alvin replied, circling around Hiccup where he knelt on the floor.

"Where's-?"

"Locked up. For now. Might be useful as a hostage later. I mean, look at you. Clearly, you take issue to just a dragon bein' hurt. What might you do at the threat of a person being hurt? What little bits of information might slip out? Always good to have options, I think."

Alvin nodded to one of his men. "Get 'im comfortable."

"Comfortable" apparently meant being forcibly seated in a chair with his wrists cuffed too tight to the arms of the chair. He was pulled up to a large wooden table that also probably doubled as a rack and Alvin sat down across from him.

"I've got to give you credit, there's grown men that'd be wettin' themselves at the prospect of all this. It's a shame I'll have to break that defiance-but then again, I don't have to...provided you tell me everything you know about training dragons."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Is this it? Pretty weak for an interrogation method, isn't it? 'Do this or I'll hurt you.' If you were really that smart and really that cunning, you'd figure out ways to make me slip up and give you the knowledge without having to torture me."

"Lad, I've got nothing to prove to you and I'm not about to try gettin' what I want to know out of you with interrogation alone just to prove how smart I am. Nice try, though."

"It was worth a shot," admitted Hiccup.

"Look at you. You're wasted on that island of yours, but that's what they do, lad, to people like us-"

"People like us? I'm nothing like you."

"It's been well-established so far that I'm no slouch in the brains department, lad. Smarter than you, at least in all this. They don't value that on Berk. I'd know."

"Why because they didn't appreciate how smart you were every time you did something to earn your title?"

"Because I didn't always look this way, lad. Not when I was exiled, at least." He said it in such an honest way that Hiccup almost believed it was the truth, but then decided it sounded toohonest. "You do what has to be done to survive when you've got nowhere to call home."

"And in your case, I'm guessing that involved absorbing a whole 'nother person?"

"In my case, it meant I had to makemyself strong enough to survive and after I did, I cut enough throats to get to the top. My point, lad, is they didn't appreciate me on Berk, even before I ever raised a hand against them. They hated how intelligent I was. Your father, especially. If I ever wanted to do things a new way, he refused because it wasn't the Viking way. Sound familiar?"

Hiccup looked away. "It's not like that anymore."

"Is it? I heard the Bog-Burglars laughing at you when you walked outside, that first time you came to see 'Bertha.' Do you know why they think you're a joke?"

Hiccup didn't answer.

"Because 'e's told everyone that's what you are. Every island 'e's gone to, every trading post-and so 'ave any other Vikings from your island. Enough that even the Outcasts have heard every 'Hiccup the Useless' joke under the sun. Stoick's Little Embarassment. You're famous, lad! Though maybe not for something you'd want to be famous for. And it's because of your father."

"It's not like that anymore," Hiccup said quietly, staring at the table.

"And it will never be like that again, is what you think. You think that you've somehow shown him the light with all this business with the dragons. It won't last. Never does, on Berk. They're gonna turn on you, because they don't like different there, and let's face it, you're not exactly what we'd call 'standard,' are you."

"You've been exiled long enough I didn't even know who you are," Hiccup pointed out. "You don't know what it's like there now and it's not how you're saying it is. They accept me now-"

"For how long? Until you make another mistake? Until they decide they've got a handle on the whole dragon thing and don't need your help anymore?"

Hiccup couldn't stop the feelings of panic from welling up at Alvin's words. Those were the things he feared, that it was only temporary, that it was only for as long as he was useful. There was a reason he was so worried about the dragons being accepted on the island, why he took it so personally, and while a part of it was because he was afraid of being separated from Toothless and because he wanted to keep the peace between the dragons and their tribe, there was another reason, rooted in his own fears.

What if, one day, he woke up and it wasn't enough anymore? What if things went back to the way they used to be?

"Why protect a tribe that thinks so little of you that their acceptance is entirely conditional? It's not as if they actually care about you! Why should you care about them? And your father-here you are, doing everything you can to prove yourself and he's crackin' jokes on other islands about how terrible you are. Not exactly the actions of a loving father, are they?"

"He doesn't make those anymore," Hiccup insisted.

"How sure are you that he'll never make them again?"

Hiccup didn't have an answer to that, because he didn't know.

"That's what I thought." Alvin tsked and shook his head. "And you're willing to die for these people? Willing to suffer?"

Hiccup was still silent.

"...or are you?"

"I..." Hiccup stopped.

"You see the truth now, don't you."

"They're never really going to accept me, are they," Hiccup said hopelessly.

"Sad to say it, but no. Here among the Outcasts, though, we take the ones that don't fit in with other tribes. If you help us with the dragons, you'll have a place of honor here. Hiccup the dragon conqueror, clever enough to beat us at our own game! We need minds like yours. Just think, you'll have all the power you've ever wanted! People will respect you-in fact, they'll fearyou!"

"Some respect would be nice," Hiccup acknowledged. If one of his hands were free, he'd have been rubbing his chin.

Alvin pushed a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink in front of Hiccup.

"All you have to do for that, all you have to have power and respect, to be free of those nasty Vikings of Berk that only care how useful you are to them, is to tell me how to train dragons," Alvin said, unclasping one cuff so Hiccup's hand was free.

Hiccup took the quill, scratched his chin with the feather thoughtfully, then dipped it into the inkwell and began writing, sticking his tongue out between his teeth.

"The first step is this," he said after writing for just a moment, and then he slid the paper around so Alvin could read it.

Alvin's response upon seeing what Hiccup wrote was total silence.

"It's clear enough to read, right? I'm actually left-handed and you freed my right."

Alvin picked up the paper and crumpled it angrily in his hands. "Think you're funny, do ya'?"

It wasn't often that Hiccup cursed, mainly because he was so bad at it, but this really was one of those special occasions where he felt like he should give it a whirl. Hence what he'd written on the parchment and what he said next:

"No, I think you should follow those instructions to the letter and go fu-"

Alvin slapped him across the face before he got to finish telling him what he should do to himself and he did it hard. It was on the side that he'd already cut and Hiccup recoiled from it and felt his face immediately start swelling up even worse after.

Alvin nodded to Savage.

"Get him out of his clothes and tied up outside. Let's see how much he likes the cold."

"You're not as smart as you think you are if you think I'll betray my father and my tribe," Hiccup insisted as he was un-cuffed and dragged from the chair, his tunic pulled over his head roughly, "but you're even dumber if you think I'll subject the dragons to people like you."

"You'll be eating those words, lad," Alvin said as Savage bound Hiccup's hands and tossed him over his shoulder, "which might be a good thing since we're sure not goin' to give you anythin' elseto eat."

That was how Hiccup found himself in his under-things, tied up to a wooden pole outside the Outcasts' fort, under guard of several much-more-warmly-dressed Outcasts.

As the chill started to steal over his limbs, it also stole over his heart. Unless they came soon, his friends weren't going to save him in time.

The ruse Alvin had pulled made it even less likely.


"Watch out for catapult fire and arrows, they'll know we're coming, and they're going to be on the attack. Bertha and Astrid, I want you on point, your dragons are the best at laying down cover fire," shouted Stoick as they made their approach. "Ruffnut and Tuffnut-"

Stoick trailed off as Outcast Island came into view and every Viking in the air fell into silence when they saw it.

Every building had been torched. The catapults were all gone, likely dismantled and carted out by ship. The island had such sparse resources and few places to hide that it was clear that the Outcasts had pulled up anchor and shipped out.

"No!" Stoick shouted as they went in for a landing. "No, no, no!"

Bertha cautioned him, "Stoick, be careful, they may still have left a trap behind!"

As Stoick and Gobber landed, they realized that they hadn't even done them the courtesy of believing they were worth a trap. The other riders landed to look around and Astrid hopped off of a worried and bewildered Toothless to run over to the chief's side.

"Where are they? Why would they have headed this way if they weren't coming here?" she asked, hoping he had something of an idea.

"Why would Johann have lied?" asked Bertha.

"Maybe they changed directions after Johann saw them?" Fishlegs suggested.

"Stoick, what are you looking at?" Gobber said, noticing that Stoick wasn't paying attention to the conversation. Instead, he was staring at a flat rock nearby. All the other Vikings took a look and saw that there was writing on it, runes scratched into the surface.

It was a taunt and it was clear who it was from. It was also clear that it had been sitting there for awhile, most likely left behind before Hiccup had even been kidnapped, as if the person who'd carved it had believed in their own plan with absolute certainty.

All it said was:

Got your boy.

With a loud yell of frustration and something else that could only be paternal grief, the chief suddenly took his hammer and slammed it down on the rock, smashing it into pieces.

They were all quiet as he took a moment to collect himself.

"We have to keep searching. If the ship went in this direction, it can't be far."

The look Gobber shared with Astrid, however, said something closer to the truth-that it could be very far indeed.

"Stoick..." Gobber said.

"What?" the chief snapped back.

"It's night-time, Stoick," said Gobber. They could all only just make each other out in the dark. "We haven't got any light to see by."

"We're getting back up in the air and we're finding that ship," Stoick insisted. "We are not leaving my son in the hands of that-that monsterovernight."

"If we search now, chances are we might pass right over them and think an area's already clear because we've already covered it-"

"We're searching for Hiccup until we find him!" Stoick suddenly roared, rounding on his best friend. "I'm not losing him to Alvin! Not like I lost Val!"

Astrid's eyes widened and she shared a glance with Snotlout, wondering if he knew what Stoick was talking about, since he was related to the chief. The other teen just shrugged.

"Stoick, listen to me. We're all exhausted. We're hungry. We're not bats, so seeing him in the dark is out of the question. If we try to take the Outcasts on without any rest, we'll be useless in a fight. We need to rest and regroup."

The fight seemed to leave the chief's body. "He's going to hurt him, Gobber."

"I know," Gobber said simply. "But if we rest now, we have a better chance of keepin' him from killinghim."

Stoick shut his eyes tight, taking several deep breaths, and Gobber placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

There was only the slightest break in Stoick's voice as he told the others. "Get back in the air. We're going to find somewhere safe to set up camp and regroup the ships."

It might have been a trick of the near-darkness but Astrid thought there was something about the chief's eyes that made them look utterly lifeless.


Hiccup screamed. It wasn't so much that it was burning him, but it felt like it was burning him and that was enough. After leaving him outside until he'd nearly lost consciousness from the cold, until his limbs were numb, until every bone in his body ached, until his good leg felt like it was going to snap in two from all the weight he'd had to keep on it for hours, they'd dragged Hiccup back inside and immediately dumped nearly-scalding water on him. It wasn't hot enough to actually scald but having that much heat touch his skin after it'd gone numb with cold was agony. It was every time his leg had fallen asleep and he'd had those painful prickles as the feeling returned all crammed into one and he felt it over every inch of his skin.

The good thing was that he hopefully wasn't going to die of hypothermia now that his body had been heated up again and he'd been brought back into a room with a hearth.

The bad thing was that he had no idea what else that hearth was going to be put to use to do besides heating up the water that had caused him such pain.

Kneeling there sputtering and shuddering convulsively, arms wrapped around himself, Hiccup looked up to see his tormentor grinning.

"Last chance, boy, before the real fun starts, said Alvin, "Tell me how to train dragons and you'll be spared."

Hiccup closed his eyes tight, wincing. "You already have my answer."

"Alright then," said Alvin.

There was no pretending anymore that he wasn't afraid. There was no way to hide it when it was in every twitched muscle of his face, in the defeated slope of his shoulders and as Alvin stepped closer, he couldn't stop himself from leaning away, instinctually.

Alvin grinned that crook-toothed grin of his and gestured around the room.

"Looks like it's time to pick your poison."

"I get to choose? Wow, gotta love your sense of hospitality. Any chance there's a sense of empathy tucked away in there to? Most likely very, verydeep?"

"None whatsoever."

"That's what I thought," Hiccup said miserably.

He tried to prepare himself for the unpreparable. Maybe he'd get lucky. Maybe he'd be rescued. If he wasn't rescued, maybe, just maybe, being a weakling would be a good thing for once, because maybe he'd die before it got too agonizing.

He hoped.

Then he wondered what had happened to his life that he needed to hope for something like that.

What happened is you learned how to train dragons,he told himself.

Now everyone in the whole world was going to want to know how to do it, too.