Disclaimer: I do not own anything from How to train your dragon

Chapter 4: A New Tradition

Three days have passed and no one has seen or heard any of the dragons at all. In the morning Hiccup is lying awake in his bed, when suddenly there is a rhythmic banging on the ceiling. Thinking it was Toothless; he excitedly got up and ran outside.

"Toothless! I am so glad to see you, bud. I knew you and Midnight would come back...Urgh!" He was suddenly cut off as he slipped on ice again. This time, instead of Toothless catching him, Hiccup fell on the ground. 'Toothless and Midnight couldn't have come back.' He thought.

He then heard his sisters voice coming "Midnight! You guys are back! I'm so glad." Before Hiccup could warn her, however, Hicca also slipped on the ice and landed right next to her brother. "They are not back, are they?" She asked her brother who shook his head in reply.

It turns out that Stoick was the one who was banging on the roof as he was repairing the damage caused by Toothless

"Morning, you two!" He greeted cheerfully.

"Oh, hey, Dad..." Hiccup said, disappointed that it wasn't Toothless and Midnight.

"Morning, dad." Hicca said, also disappointed.

"Glad you two are up! I was looking for your helmets."

The twins' eyes widened at this. They had forgotten about that.

"Our-our helmets?" Hiccup said nervously.

"Odin needs a place to put your goodies." Stoick said as he climbed down the ladder.

"Oh right. We do need to get that..." Hicca said not in the mood to go out in a boat to get the helmets.

"Yeah, right...We- we'll get on that. Great..." Hiccup said, with same thoughts as his sister.

Stoick noticed his childrens' dejected attitudes and frowned. Ever since the battle of the Red Death, that's what the Vikings have decided to call the enormous beast, the chief has realised exactly how blind he has been when it comes to his own children. Since then he has made a promise to himself that he wouldn't be so blind "Hold on! Hold on. Alright... Come on. What's on your minds? Out with it."

The twins looked at each other and sighed. Hiccup answered his fathers' question. "Oh, it's been three days, Dad. We just thought Toothless and Midnight would be back by now."

"We have no idea where they could be or how they are or anything." Hicca said.

"I'm sure they are with the other dragons." Stoick said reassuringly.

"Yeah? We're not that sure." Hiccup said, not convinced.

"At all." Hicca said, also not convinced.

Stoick looked at his children sympathetically, understanding how they feel "Ah, listen... I know what it's like to miss someone you love this time of year. It is difficult. But what do we do, when they can't be here for the holiday? We celebrate them! And I imagine that is exactly what Midnight and Toothless would want you two to do. Right?"

That seemed to work for the twins.

"Yeah."

"You're right."

"Good!" Stoick said as he patted his children "Then go get those helmets! We've had enough disappointment around here."

In the plaza, Hiccup and Hicca carried one oar each to the docks. They were hoping by some miracle, they would come across their helmets soon. As they walked, they bumped right into Fishlegs, who was carrying a basket of fish.

"Oh sorry, Fishlegs, we didn't see you there." Hicca apologised. Hiccup then notice the basket.

"Oh, Fishlegs, you hungry? There's enough fish there to feed a dragon!" Hiccup commented.

That made Fishlegs nervous for some reason "Ha, ha, ha... Oh, a dragon? That's..." He then ran away, leaving the Haddock twins confused.

"You know, Fishlegs has been acting strange since last night." Hicca said as she walked the Ingerman boy rush away. She then went after him with her brother following her.

"Hicca wait! Our helmets!"

"Our helmets can wait! This can't!"

The twins followed Fishlegs to a barn. As soon as the Ingerman boy leaves the barn, Hicca runs to the door.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Her brother asked.

"We probably shouldn't, but it's too late. I'm too curious to let it go and I know for a fact that you are as well." Hiccup shrugged and allowed his sister to open the doors, knowing she was right. With that she opened the doors and the two were shocked to find that inside the barn was Meatlug, who charged after them as soon as the doors were opened.

The twins had no time to move out of the way so they did only thing they could do "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" They were carried away by the Gronckle who didn't seem to have noticed the twins.

"Meatlug?!" They screamed in unison. That made the dragon aware of their presence but was not deterred in flying. The twins hung on to Meatlug for their lives. The three of them made their way past Astrid, who dived out of the way when she saw them coming towards her.

"Hiccup? Hicca? Where are you two going?!" Astrid shouted, shocked by what she was seeing.

"We HAVE NO IDEAAA!" The Haddock twins yelled back.

Suddenly Fishlegs called from the barn "Meatlug? What about presents?! Hey!" That got Astrids' attention as she gathered the other teens and went to the barn where Fishlegs kept Meatlug. "I can't believe him."

"YOU can't believe HIM?!" Astrid shouted in disbelief "YOU KIDNAPPED YOUR DRAGON!"

"And you chained him up!" Raeda shouted.

"Well, that makes it sound so mean." Fishlegs said defensively.

"Well, cause it is mean! What were you thinking?!" Raeda demanded.

What they didn't know was the Thorston twins, who weren't paying attention to the argument, suddenly saw something in the pile of hay.

Shocked by what they were seeing, Tuffnut tried to get the others' attention "Hey, guys?"

But they weren't listening to him. "He flew away the second he was unleashed!" Astrid pointed out.

"I'm seventy-two percent sure he wanted to stay." Fishlegs said.

"Well clearly he didn't. And now Hicca and Hiccup are gone with him and we have no idea where they went!" Raeda said.

"GUYS!" Tuffnut yelled, finally getting their attention.

"Whoa... Meatlug barfed up a pile of rocks." Fishlegs said as he and the others saw what the twins were looking at.

"Really Fishlegs?" Raeda sighed, knowing exactly what those 'rocks' really were.

Ruffnut even knew as she rolled her eyes "You're such an idiot! Those aren't rocks. Your dragon laid eggs!"

Looking at the eggs, Astrid came to a realization "Hey, wait! I bet that's why the dragons left! To lay their eggs!"

"But, boy dragons don't lay eggs." Fishlegs said confused.

"Yeah, your boy dragon is a girl dragon." Ruffnut said.

"Okay, that actually explains a few things." Fishlegs muttered.

Another idea came to Astrid "Hey! I got another great idea! Everyone's missing their dragons, right?"

"Oh, boy." Raeda muttered.

"Oh, here it comes." Snotlout complained. He still couldn't get the taste of the Yaknog out of his mouth.

"It's time to make another new Snoggletog tradition!" Astrid said excitedly as she wrapped a red ribbon around one of the eggs.