Next chapter is here! Thanks for all your interest and kind words, makes this writing thing a lot more rewarding. As always, remember to follow, favorite and review.

Storming down the stairs of the Haddock family house Hiccup's mind was already formulating a plan of action. He'd only need a day or so to search Dragon Island from top to bottom with Toothless, all he needed now was excuse to get there. His father would be watching him like a hawk after their little spat and doing everything in his power to stop Hiccup from trying to find out what had happened to Malie. Gobber was a mess, and if Hiccup could do anything to help his friend then he would. Finding evidence of what happened to his little girl would surely give him some sort of closure. His father had told him that Gobber travelled out to find Dragon Island again and again after his daughter was taken; surely this meant that some part of him, however small, wanted to know if she was still out there and find her if she was.

Hiccup started to walk down through the village to the academy where he would find Toothless. On days that the pair couldn't spend together the dragon would always be found there using his big green eyes to try and persuade another dragon rider to give him a fish or two. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, Hiccup thought and smiled inwardly to himself, was that really an accurate description? As Hiccup slowed his pace and began to calm down, he looked around the village. It had been five years since the dragons had become a part of Berk and so much had changed. To his right were Gothi and some of the other women laughing and joking as they scrubbed their family's clothes in huge wooden basins accompanied by a couple of scauldrons who would help keep their water nice and hot. Further along, Hiccup came across a few more vikings who were setting off on a hunting trip to another island on the back of a pack of nadders. Their dragons were loaded with empty satchels ready for the spoil. The accuracy of the nadders spines had helped Berk's hunters so much to gather meat before the winter months and they could carry loads no viking could dream of.

Walking further down the village into the plaza, Hiccups step was interrupted by a group of terrible terrors running across his path towards the dragon stables that had been built about a year after the dragons had moved in. He followed the terrors between two houses and walked toward the edge of the cliff to look down at the monstrous building. It was set off a lower level of the island and jutted out from the cliff on wooden rafters. As big as at least 20 Berkian houses, it was easily the largest building Berk had ever seen and was kept safe too, by the fire prevention methods that Hiccup himself had designed. The terrors proceeded to leap off the edge and glide down to one of the entrances. Hiccup sat down at the edge of the cliff and dangled his leg and prosthetic over the edge. From here all he could really see was the stable roof but could watch the heavy traffic of dragons flying in and out as well as the vikings on lower levels of the cliff walking in and out carrying baskets of fish and straw.

Unlike Hiccup, when the dragons had moved in not everyone on Berk had wanted one sleeping at the foot of their bed so they had needed to find somewhere to sleep besides the tops of houses (there had been several pretty serious collapses). Hiccup had the idea for the stable after he'd woken up one morning to see the village in worse shape than after a raid. He remembered back to when he proposed the project to Gobber who helped him to begin planning to create such a place. For weeks they had designed and worked so hard to make it perfect and now here it was in front of him.

Hiccup sighed. There was so much he had to thank Gobber for. If it hadn't been for the years he had spent training him, this stable surely wouldn't be here. It was unlikely that the war would have ended in the first place if Hiccup hadn't been able to create Toothless's tail. But it wasn't just that. Gobber had always been the only one to believe that Hiccup wasn't as useless as he seemed. He had taken him on as an apprentice when Hiccup was about ten after catching him sneaking into the black smith to try and use the forge to 'improve' one of his toys. Clearly he saw some sort of potential in him, something his father had never seen up to that point. It took some persuading on Gobber's part but the chief had eventually given in and allowed his son to become the black smith's apprentice. And the rest is history, Hiccup thought.

"Waaaahooooooo!" Suddenly Hiccup heard the distinct voice of Snotlout as he and Hookfang passed overhead, flying towards the academy. Dam, he was going to be late for training. Standing up slowly Hiccup looked out again at the view, thinking again that he had to do something to help Gobber; maybe tonight he'd go and talk to him again, see if he could reason with him and get him to come to Dragon Island. He watched until Hookfang was a dot in the distance then turned and started heading down to the academy.

Finally reaching the academy, Hiccup entered through the stone tunnel and walked into the ring.

Hey guys, sorry I'm –" Hiccup began only to be cut short by a hammer flying in his direction. He quickly ducked down to avoid it smashing into him and stood up again to see Tuffnut and Snotlout fighting in the middle of the arena surrounded by a circle of the other riders and their dragons who seemed to be encouraging them.

"Oh Gods," He mumbled to himself putting his hand to his face and letting out an exasperated sigh. He looked up again to see Toothless bounding over to him. Hiccup smiled weakly as the dragon give him a friendly lick across the face.

"Hey bud, good to see you too. Do you have any idea what's going on here?" he asked Toothless, giving him a scratch behind the ear with one hand and gesturing to the group of riders with the other. Toothless responded with a contented growl. Hiccup looked up again at the group of vikings in the middle and started to make his way over to them, Toothless following behind.

"Does anybody want to tell me what's going on here?" he asked as he took his place next to Fishlegs in the circle of spectators. At this point Snotlout had his hand out behind him ready to accept another hammer passed to him from Ruffnut who did so with a huge smile on her face. Across from Snotlout, Tuffnut stood holding his gronkle iron mace, his face furious. That's strange, Hiccup thought, these two were supposed to be best friends.

"From what I've gathered, I think Snotlout might have asked Ruffnut out on a date?" Fishlegs replied, not taking his eyes off of the battle. Hiccup nodded, that would make sense. Tuffnut always became extremely protective of his sister when it came to potential suitors and if anybody he didn't deem acceptable tried to 'make a move' on her they would have him and 'Macy' to deal with. It had happened a couple of times when young men had come travelling to Berk from different islands to find wives for themselves. Tuff could have them running for their boats in a matter of hours if he didn't want them near his sister; years of tormenting Ruff had given him all the practice he needed to scare people away. It was sweet, in a demented kind of way, that he looked out for her this much. But now Snotlout was the potential suitor and Hiccup assumed that for Tuffnut, this kind of behaviour was the highest form of treachery. Hiccup watched as the pair ran at each other again, their weapons smashing together producing a metallic clang that echoed around the stone walls of the arena. They both held their weapons together pushing against one another with scowls on their faces.

"Er, don't you think we should stop this?" Hiccup asked, pulling his eyes away from the two young men and look around the circle. He was slightly concerned one was going to kill the other.

"Not yet," Ruffnut replied dreamily from the other side of Hiccup holding her arm out in front of him as if to stop him interrupting "I want to see how this ends,"

"Yea, I wouldn't mind watching Snotlout get his butt kicked by someone other than me for a change," Astrid added matter-of-factly. Hiccup sighed.

"Guess it's up to us bud," He said to Toothless before gesturing towards the weapons the young men were holding. Toothless let out a plasma blast which hit the mace and hammer that Tuffnut and Snotlout were holding respectively. They flew into the air and fell back to the ground a few feet away with a loud clatter. Both fighting vikings, suddenly weapon-less jumped backwards to avoid the blast before turning to face Hiccup and Toothless.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Snotlout demanded walking towards Hiccup pointing at him, "I'm fighting for the heart of my princess," he said more softly, turning to Ruffnut, grabbing her hand kissing it.

"Oh no you're not," Tuffnut said coming up behind Snotlout and tackling him to the ground where they began wrestling again.

"Agh, how romantic," Ruffnut swooned. Hiccup saw Astrid look at Ruffnut clearly in disgust.

"You do realise that's Snotlout don't you?" She asked he friend who replied silently with a nod without taking her eyes off of Snotlout who momentarily became distracted by Ruffnut's answer leaving him open to take another punch to the face from Tuffnut re-engaging their battle. Hiccup groaned in frustration. This was exactly the sort of thing that made him certain chiefing wasn't for him. How was he supposed to delegate for the entire tribe if he couldn't even control a hormone-educed spat between two best friends. He looked to Fishlegs who shrugged and then to Toothless who just looked at him confused. Hiccup knew he'd have to bring in the big guns.

"Belch, Hookfang," He called out gaining the attention of the two dragons that belonged to the fighting duo. Toothless added an authorative bark to Hiccup's command prompting the dragons to animate and grab their respective riders by their collars lifting them away from each other and off the ground rendering them powerless.

"Look," Hiccup began approaching the pair who were dangling from the teeth of their dragons, "this is important. Alvin could be here in a few weeks and we've got to be ready. He knows that we have the dragons this time and his main priority is going to be getting them down out of the sky. Our flying has got to be infallible if we want to stand a chance beating him. So please, can we use these few weeks we have left to make sure we're ready and train as hard as we can?"

"Urgh, you're such a buzz-kill, Hiccup" Snotlout groaned crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.

"He's right," Fishlegs interjected, shuffling forwards to stand next to Hiccup, "Stoick said that Alvin is going to come sometime before the sea turns to ice. That's only a couple of months away, by the way Hiccup," he continued his voice suddenly anxious, "any word on the location of the Book of Dragons?"

"No Fishle-" Hiccup began wearily

"The Book of Dragons is missing!?" Tuffnut suddenly exclaimed from up in Belch's mouth.

"Yea," Hiccup answered confused at Tuff's sudden interest in a book. He wasn't even sure if he could read, "it went missing,"

"Aww man," Ruffnut replied from behind Hiccup, clearly disheartened, he turned around to face her and saw her face fall "that book worked great as a hammer,"

Tuffnut chortled, "Haha, yea, sure did, I can hardly remember last night, I think a part of my brain died...awesome,"

"Wait so you guys have the book?" Fishlegs asked perplexed, looking from one twin to the other.

"Oh yea, we do!" Tuffnut remembered.

"Well, there you go Legs, the mystery of the missing book has been solved," Hiccup said to Fishlegs with a hint of sarcasm.

"Anyway guys," Hiccup continued, now addressing the entire group, walking around in the middle of the circle of vikings "we need to get serious, Alvin's got an entire army he's bringing to Berk, we need to be ready, my Dad's counting on us to lead the air attack,"

"We're ready Hiccup," Astrid said seriously walking up from behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder. He was lucky to have Astrid he thought, although their young romance had fizzled out, he could still count on her when it really mattered. He smiled as her as she continued forward and stood in front of him, hand on her hip.

"So what are we doing today?" She enquired

"Erm, yea so today's training," Hiccup began as he started to pace in front of the group in front of him, Tuffnut and Snotlout still hanging from the mouths of their dragons, "is all about manoeuvring and blasting. Me and Toothless here set up some targets last night around the island for you to hit whilst flying on your dragon in places where your they won't be able to stop and aim," As he spoke Hiccup moved round to the side of Toothless, jumped into his saddle and adjusted his prosthetic and put it in place ready to take off. The other dragon riders followed suit, jumping onto their respective dragons with Tuffnut and Snotlout being flung into the air and caught by Belch and Hookfang. As Ruffnut got to the same level at the two young men on her dragon's neck, she proceeded to punch her brother in the face before blowing a kiss to Snotlout. Tuffnut grumbled, repulsed, as he readjusted his hat.

"It's important that you are all able to hit a target whilst moving as staying still leaves you open to being attacked yourselves. So let's go" Hiccup announced as he and Toothless bound back out of the arena and took off into the cloudless sky followed by the four other dragons.

Finishing up their training and heading back to the arena, Hiccup concluded that despite their rough start, the exercise had gone better than expected. He smiled to himself, proud of what they had accomplished; the group had excelled working as a team, manoeuvring like pros and blasting all the targets set out no problem. They were definitely ready for Alvin and his men. Hiccup almost became excited about telling his dad the good news before he remembered that they hadn't finished their last conversation on the best of terms. It was so easy to forget what was going on in the village below when he was flying through the skies on Toothless. The way they moved effortlessly, gliding through the clouds made him feel like he was flying himself and made it difficult to remember that a world existed beneath him.

Hiccup and Toothless led the group through the opening to the arena and landed gently on the cold stone floor. The sound of talons and tails hitting the ground accompanied them as one by one each rider settled and dismounted their dragon.

"Good work today guys, Alvin doesn't stand a chance against us," Hiccup announced to the group as he and Toothless touched the ground.

"That's right he doesn't," Tuffnut affirmed before he and Ruffnut slammed helmets together in front of their zippleback. Hiccup chuckled, he'd never understand why they did that.

"Good run for you as well today bud," He continued to compliment Toothless quietly as he took his prosthetic out of his saddle, returned it to 'walking mode' and slid off to the side. As he dismounted, Toothless promptly and playfully moved around Hiccup bumping his back and knocking him forwards slightly out of balance. He proceeded to roll onto his back and looked to Hiccup expectantly.

"Ahh, ok bud, you earned it," Hiccup responded as he bent to his knees and began rubbing the dragons belly who growled playfully. As he scratched, Hiccup looked around at his friends, petting and treating their dragons. Only now did he notice the length of their shadows. He looked up and saw that the sky was turning red; night was drawing in. They'd been training for hours. He shivered as he started to feel the cold that came with Berk's autumnal evenings, although nothing like the winter months, this cold was dry and still, almost as if it anticipated the fierce storms that were to come. He considered starting to make his journey home. What was his return to the Haddock house going to be like, he thought. Not pleasant was the short answer. His hands moving over Toothless's belly slowed and he stared out into space as he thought more about the situation. He needed to help Gobber, but his dad seemed adamant that it was a bad idea to go looking for the girl. He sighed to himself, unaware that he was being watched by a certain blonde viking.

Toothless noticed his rider's distraction and brought him back with a lick to the face. Hiccup gave a feeble chuckle and gave his dragon a final rub to the belly before standing back up keeping his eyes and hands on his dragon.

"Is everything okay, Hiccup?"

Hiccup looked up at the sound of his name to see the concerned face of Astrid standing in front of him, her brow furrowed and head tilted to one side. She was accompanied by Stormfly whose face moved quickly from side to side getting a look at Hiccup with both of her eyes. Toothless proceeded to move from beneath Hiccups hands over to the other dragon and playfully nudged her beginning a play fight.

"Errr yea, Astrid, everything's fine why wouldn't it be?" Hiccup replied quickly, rubbing his hands together and walking past her towards the stables, avoiding eye contact. He knew he was a terrible liar and there hadn't been a time yet that this girl hadn't been able to get something out of him. Astrid turned and followed him as he walked away before grabbing his left shoulder and pulling him round to face her.

"You tell me," she replied sarcastically, "I know that look Hiccup, something's bother you,"

"Nope," he retorted, turning his face and looking down at the ground, "nothing's bother me, I'm just..err...just...you know, thinking about dragons and such,"

"Oh, yea?" Astrid said, with one eye brow raised as she crossed her arms and shifted her weight onto one leg.

"Yea, it's kind of what I do," Hiccup replied his voice dripping with dishonesty. By this time a couple of the other riders had noticed the two and stopped paying so much attention to their dragons and began looking over towards the pair.

"Look Astrid, can we just drop it," Hiccup asked her, almost whispering to avoid having anybody else hear them. He backed away from her slightly, raising his hands, palms facing her. He couldn't tell them about Gobber, it wouldn't be right.

"No Hiccup, I want to know what's going on," Astrid replied confidently and to Hiccups dismay, loudly as she proceeded to walk towards him slowly. Hiccup looked to Toothless, over Astrid's shoulder, hoping to make a quick get away, but he was otherwise engaged with Stormfly.

"Errrr," Hiccup mumbled. At this point the other riders had made their way over to Hiccup and Astrid, their curiosity getting the better of them.

"Yea Hiccup what's going on?" Snotlout asked brashly, looking Hiccup straight in the eye, "Something you're not telling us?"

Oh, great, Hiccup thought, rolling his eyes, now this guy knows. By this point the group had pushed him up to the side of the arena. He could feel the cool stone wall through the fabric of his shirt.

"We want to know!" Ruffnut announced as her and her brother practically bounced on the spot in anticipation. Fishlegs stood next to them, fiddling with his hands, not asking out loud but clearing waiting for some kind of statement. Hiccup rubbed his face with his hand and sighed again. He would have to tell them, they'd not let him leave without some kind of explanation. Curse Astrid for this. They were going to find out sooner or later he thought to himself. If he went off for a day to Gods knows where without any explanation and at the consequence of a very angry looking chief, they'd know something was up.

"Look," He began, nervously rubbing his hand through his hair, "I'm not supposed to tell anybody about this, Gobber doesn't want anybody talking about it,"

"Gobber! Is this about why he's been such a total downer lately?" Tuffnut asked as he absent mindedly stuck a finger in his ear and began rooting around. Hiccup looked at him wide eyed; even Tuff had noticed his mentor's attitude lately, was he really that blind that he hadn't seen it?

"Oh, eh, yea it is actually," Hiccup replied slightly stunned. The group didn't reply, prompting Hiccup to continue.

"Well, it's sort of a, sensitive, time of the year for Gobber," He continued.

"Sensitive? Ha," Snotlout jeered, "And he calls himself a viking,"

"Coming from the guy who cried the last time Hookfang got a cold," Astrid remarked causing the whole group to snigger. Snotlout looked down at the ground and mumbled something unintelligible.

"Anyway," Hiccup paused before continuing, "I don't know if you guys knew this but Gobber had a daughter,"

All eyes were on him as the five jaws around him dropped. The bucket of fish Fishlegs had been holding fell to the ground in a clatter that filled the silence.

"W-what?!" Astrid stuttered

"Yea," Hiccup replied, "I know, big deal right?"

"Huge deal," she agreed.

Suddenly the sound of Snotlout's laugh filled the air causing the group to jump.

"Gobber had a daughter!" He jeered. Hiccup looked at him confused as he continued to laugh, bending over and slapping his thighs. The sound echoed around the walls of the arena and even the dragons were stopped; suddenly distracted from their own interactions and looked over at the young man before starting to make their way over to the group.

"Why, why, why is that funny Snotlout?" Hiccup asked frowning as Toothless came and stood next to him.

"Well can't you imagine it," Snotlout replied between bouts of laughter, he leant over Hookfang's snout and banged his fist against his nose "That face on a girls' body, haha, she would have been a sight for sure," He let out another chortle and stood up straight again, wiping a tear from his eye "Maybe it's for the best she's not around anymore, am I right?" As he spoke he elbowed Fishlegs, trying to establish some kind of camaraderie but he just stepped away awkwardly.

As Snotlout continued to laugh, Hiccup heard Astrid sigh. He looked from Snotlout over to her and caught her as she pointed to Snotlout and yelled:

"Stormfly, spines!"

The deadly nadder then proceeded to send a tail-ful of spines at Snotlout which forced him across the floor and pinned him to the stone wall instantly silencing him.

"Good girl," Astrid praised her dragon as she rubbed her on the nose before looking up at Hiccup and continuing, "anyway Hiccup, what were you saying,"

"So yea," Hiccup said, his attention returning to his story, "The reason that Gobber has been so down lately is because about his time fifteen years ago, his daughter was taken by dragons,"

"Dragons took her?" Fishlegs queried looking confused, "But that doesn't make sense. Dragons have never taken anything but sheep or yak, why would they take a person?"

"That's exactly what I'd been thinking Fishlegs," Hiccup replied, "I can't see why a dragon would take a human, let alone a child, it just doesn't add up. And on this note," he took a deep breath, let's see what his friends thought of his plan "I was thinking of taking Toothless and going to Dragon Island, see if there's any sign of what happened to her,"

"You don't think she's still alive out there somewhere do you?" Astrid asked sceptically.

"Well who knows right? Dragons have never taken people before, and we know now that they'd never harm someone unarmed, someone who wasn't a threat. Who knows what happened to Malie, maybe she's still out there," he gestured out of the gates and to the ocean beyond it.

"Hey guys!" They heard Snotlout shout from his position on the wall, "Can someone get me down?"

"I don't know Hiccup, the chances of somebody that young surviving for that long are pretty small," Fishlegs argued, all of them choosing to ignore Snotlout's request, "I don't think there would be anyone to find out there,"

"But we have to try right," Hiccup insisted, "You've all seen how Gobber's been. If there's any way we could help him..." he trailed off as he looked around from viking to viking all of them looking discouraging.

"Hiccup, I don't know if you'd do Gobber any favours leaving to go and find his long lost daughter, it might just get his hopes up and devastate him even more when you don't find anything," Astrid pointed out. Hiccup sighed. Maybe they were right, but it didn't feel ok with him to just sit and do nothing while his friend was unhappy.

"Yea and can you imagine a more miserable Gobber?" Tuffnut asked

"Erghh," Ruffnut snorted.

"Yea ok, maybe you're right," Hiccup acknowledged looking at Toothless then back to his group. The sky was now a deep blue with just a thin ring of colour between the ocean and it, night was practically here and he needed to get home.

"Just don't do anything stupid," Astrid joked, smiling weakly at him.

"Yea, ok," Hiccup replied dropping the subject, "anyway guys, good going today, same time tomorrow?"

The group arranged to meet the next day and one by one left the arena until only Hiccup and Toothless were left. Snotlout had been grabbed from the wall by Hookfang who had continued to take the boy in his mouth and flew off. The twins had returned the Book of Dragons to Fishlegs and he had put it back in place before they too left.

"You're a good person Hiccup, I know you just want to help Gobber, but sometimes things just can't be," Astrid had said from her saddle on Stormfly when the two of them were alone. Hiccup looked up to her and smiled. She really was a great friend to have.

"Yea, thanks Astrid, night" he replied before she took off and left through the tunnel.

Hiccup sighed as she left and turned to his dragon

"What do you think bud, should I just let it go?" He asked. Toothless responded with a tired purr.

"Okay bud we'll go home, I just need to-" Hiccup trailed off as he saw Toothless' ears prick up and his eyes widen.

"What is it bud?" Hiccup asked but as he did the sound of busy buzzing wings reached Hiccup's ears. Sounds like a gronkle he thought, it was probably just Fishlegs forgetting something. He turned and started to walk towards the pens to close them, locking away some of the obstacles and targets that had been used in today's training. As he finished pulling the final leaver and putting the final barricading logs in place with his back to the arena he heard the sound of a heavy dragon thumping to the ground. That didn't sound like a gronkle he thought, that sounded more like...

"Hiccup," He heard Gobber's familiar voice, "Will you help me?"

I loved writing the interaction between the characters in this chapter. Next chapter will be up as soon as pos!