Chapter 4

Toothless walked through the dark tunnels, using his sonar. His eye was slowly going back to normal. Serenity's ankle was starting hurt her again, but she didn't want to overdose the painkillers. She bore the pain for a while. She used her magic to light up the tunnels so Toothless wouldn't get hoarse. They saw that they were surrounded by more tunnels.

"How long have we been down here?" Serenity asked.

"No clue, hours maybe," Toothless said.

"Re's probably looking for us right now," Serenity said. Toothless nodded in agreement.

"Do those dragons get overprotective of you?" he asked, as he continued down the tunnel.

"Sometimes," said Serenity. "They don't get in my way when I do my job, but they do get tense when strangers approach me, and they get really aggressive when someone approaches me with a weapon."

"And you don't mind?" asked Toothless.

"No," said Serenity. "No one has ever been so protective of me in my old life."

"Do you remember your old family?" Toothless asked.

"Only what they did," said Serenity. "Apparently I was just there to be made fun of, all my family did was mock me and keep me away from the fun stuff."

"I'm sorry," Toothless said sympathetically.

"It's okay," said Serenity giving him a grateful pat. "All I can say about it is I'm very thankful for dragons." Toothless smiled at this.

"The vikings might have a lot of cool things that dragons aren't allowed to have," he said. "Things a roof over their heads whenever they want, but we have you and they don't." Suddenly they heard grinding noises coming farther down the tunnel. Toothless stopped and perked his ears up.

"What was that?" asked Serenity, she sounded a bit scared.

"I don't think we're alone down here," said Toothless. "You might want to get off for a moment." Serenity looked down at him confused.

"Why?" she asked.

"There's only one other dragon who would be down here," Toothless explained. "And that's a Whispering Death, and I might have to fight him."

"Maybe he can help us," Serenity said.

"You don't understand," Toothless said. "Whispering Deaths are very territorial, he won't tolerate us being down here. I know you want to thing that all dragons are friendly, but that's not how it is."

"I know," said Serenity. She carefully and painfully slid off Night Fury's back. She leaned heavily on him, so she wasn't putting weight on her ankle. The noises were getting louder as they got closer. Toothless set Serenity down beside the wall and took a fighting stance. The grinding sound was almost on them, then a blood red Whispering Death came into the light. He growled when he saw the intruders.

"What are you doing down here?" he demanded.

"We fell in here a while ago," Serenity said, praying that the two dragons wouldn't start fighting. "We're trying to find a way out. What's your name?"

"I'm Mole," said the red dragon. "I really don't feel like playing host to intruders."

"You don't have to," said Serenity. Mole looked at her.

"Aren't you the one who was rejected by her own kind?" he asked. Serenity nodded, and fell silent.

"Why should I help you when your own kind doesn't even want you?" asked Mole.

"You leave her alone or so help me I'l report you to the King," Toothless snapped.

"Oh, I'm so scared," said Mole sarcastically. "Whatever the King is going to do to me, he would have to find me first."

"He has a Lord Draco's daughter for a queen, I'm sure finding you won't be a problem," Toothless shot back.

"You watch that fire hole of yours Night Fury," Mole hissed.

"Or you'll what?" Toothless snapped. Mole roared and launched spikes at Toothless. They all hit him, his legs, his neck, his shoulders, and his back. Toothless roared in pain and fell to the ground. Mole opened his mouth to shoot fire at the downed dragon. But Toothless shot fire into Mole's mouth, igniting his gas. Mole puffed up and fell to the ground, unconscious. Serenity was able to get close to Toothless and examine his wounds. The spikes were keeping the blood in. They were in very deep, and judging from his labored breathing one of them was putting pressure on his lungs. Serenity pulled her medical bag next to her and opened it.

"Are you okay?" Toothless asked her.

"I'm alright," Serenity said, her voice very gentle. "You got the worst of it." She removed the saddle and put it aside.

"How bad am I?" Toothless asked, clearly in pain.

"You have ten spikes in you," said Serenity. "And one of them is putting pressure on your lungs."

"That explains why it hurts to breath," Toothless wheezed. "We should get out of here before he wakes up."

"You're going to suffocate if I don't get these out," said Serenity.

"But if we don't go soon he'll put more in my hyde," Toothless said. "And he might hurt you too. Please I don't want that to happen." Serenity sighed.

"Okay, but I want to get those out as soon as we are out of his sight," she said.

"Fine," Toothless said. He painfully got to his feet, and Serenity followed suit. She put her bag back around her shoulder. Toothless let her lean on him and they made their way around Mole. But just as they passed his head, Serenity stopped.

"Wait," she said. She let got of her crutch and hobbled over to Mole.

"What are you doing?" Toothless asked weakly. Serenity put a hand on the Whispering Death's head and closed her eyes. She used her magic to wipe his memory. After a few seconds she was finished and went back over to Toothless.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"Covered out tracks," Serenity said. "He won't remember us at all. Now lets go before you die of asphyxiation." Toothless coughed, his breathing was getting more labored. Serenity leaned on him and they continued forwards.

They soon lost sight of Mole and Toothless got weaker. Suddenly it was Serenity supporting him, rather than him supporting her. Then Serenity set him down and knelt beside him. She opened her bag and pulled out a bunch of rags, an oral syringe, and a bottle of painkillers. She gave herself some of the painkillers, as her ankle was really starting to hurt her. Then she focused on pulling the spikes out of Toothless, without him bleeding to death. She gave him the painkillers so it wouldn't hurt him when she took them out. Once the painkiller took effect she got to work. She first took out the spike that was poking his lungs, she tugged it out, and pressed one of the rags to the wound to stop the bleeding. Then she stitched up the wound, brushed Night Fury saliva on it, and put a strip of gauze on it. She repeated this process until all the spikes were out, and the wounds dressed. Toothless had fallen asleep during the whole thing. Once Serenity was done she put her things away and closed her bag. She decided to let Toothless sleep, since he hadn't slept in hours. She sat against the wall and lifted his head onto her lap, so he was a bit more comfortable. She looked around the tunnel. Farther down she could just make out a shaft of sunlight coming through the ceiling. She gently put Toothless's head back down and got up. Leaning on the wall she went over to the sunlight to see if it was a way out. When she got there she saw that the light was coming through a big hole in the ceiling. It looked close enough to to climb out of. Serenity put her good foot on a large rock and tried to reach the edge of the hole, but she couldn't reach it without jumping. She jumped once, but she landed on her sprained ankle. She cried out in pain and sat down, desperate to relieve the weight on her throbbing ankle. Toothless woke up when he heard her cry out and quickly ran to her side.

"Are you okay?" he asked. He sniffed her.

"I'm okay Toothless," Serenity assured him. "I just landed on my ankle, but on the up side I think I've found a way out of here." She looked up at the hole. Toothless looked at is as well. He saw the light and smiled.

"I think I can signal for help," he said. He shot a plasma blast into the sky where it exploded. Then he laid down next to Serenity and put his head in her lap. She stroked his neck while they waited to be rescued.

After a while Toothless sent up another signal. And it was spotted by Re who had spent all night looking for Serenity and Toothless. The other riders, minus Hiccup, had come to help, as well as Ruby, Harmony, Tenor, and Aurora. They had looked everywhere and no sign of them, until Toothless sent up his signal. Re immediately alerted the others and headed to where the signal had come from. He took a few minuets to locate the spot where the signal came from. He let out a loud roar hoping one of them would hear it. Luckily Serenity did hear it, and grew more hopeful. Toothless sat up when he heard it. He let out an answering roar to save his shots. In no time they heard the flapping of wings and the thud of a landing dragon.

"Serenity!? Toothless!?" Re called.

"Re! We're down here!" Serenity called back. Re stuck his head in the hole with a look of relief.

"There you guys are," he said. "Are you two okay?"

"Nothing I couldn't fix," said Serenity. "But we would like to get out of here."

"Okay, the others are on their way," Re said. "Just hang in there."

"Where's Hiccup?" Toothless asked.

"He's still in bed," Re said. "Gothi said he can go flying again tomorrow."

"Thank Draco," Toothless said.

"What injuries do you have?" Re asked.

"I sprained my ankle," Serenity said. "And Toothless got shot by a Whispering Death." Re sighed. Then they heard more dragons landing and footsteps approaching the hole. The dragons all looked into the hole, followed by the riders.

"Do you guys bring a rope or something?" Serenity asked. Suddenly all the riders looked shocked.

"I couldn't find it," said Fishlegs. "I looked everywhere."

"FISHLEGS!" screamed the other riders.

"How are we supposed to get them out now?" Astrid snapped. Serenity looked at Toothless.

"You think you can jump up there?" she asked. Toothless looked up at the hole.

"I think so," he said. "But I don't want to leave you down here." Serenity hugged his head.

"I'll be right behind you," she said.

"Okay," Toothless said. He got to his feet, a bit shaky.

"Stand back," Serenity called to the others. They all backed up from the hole. Toothless went into a crouch, then thrust his wings back and jumped right out of the hole. He landed on his side and got to his feet. He looked around and saw that they were near the cliff over the arena. He could see the village nearby. He then turned his attention back to the hole as the others thought up a way to get Serenity out.

"You think you can jump out as well?" asked Aurora. "It doesn't look that high."

"I tried," Serenity said. "But I missed and landed on my bad ankle."

"Try again, we'll catch you," said Ruby. Serenity painfully got to her feet. Re crouched low to the edge of the hole, ready to catch her. Serenity put her good foot on the large rock again. She looked at the edge of the hole, then jumped. Re reached towards and managed to grab the strap of her medical bag. Serenity held the bag as tight as she could. Re started to haul her out of the hole, but unfortunately the strap wasn't strong enough to hold her weight. Just before Re could reach in to grab her hand, the strap broke.

"NOOOO!" Re cried as Serenity slipped through his talons. She fell back into the hole, hit the ground and blacked out.