Back again with chapter 4!

So while writing this chapter, I listened to the song "See You Again" by Charlie Puth (the no rap version, the other version just kind of kills the mood). I don't know, I've cried a lot while listening to it (I'm rlly sensitive okay) and I don't know it just has the whole vibe of the upcoming chapter. So listen to it if you like!

Chapter 4: Grave

All Stoick heard for the rest of the day were those same two words, repeating over and over again in his head without end.

Hiccup's missing.

Hiccup, his skinny, sarcastic daughter, was missing. Lost out there somewhere, probably scared and going through gods knows what.

After first getting told the news from the three fidgeting teens, everything moved so fast. Stoick remembered having to wake several villagers to load up a ship, sending Astrin, Fishlegs, and Snotlout to retrieve the tracking dragons, and getting Skullcrusher, then they had all left; the teens on their dragons, all of the vikings that offered to come on the ship, and Stoick atop his Thunderdrum.

The ship was far behind him, and Snotlout and Fishlegs flew with the other tracking dragons and Toothless in front to guide the way. Next to the chief was Astrin, who was summoned to fly beside Stoick for the trip. He had questions he needed to ask, and the Hofferson was the teen he trusted the most when it came to his daughter.

"And you didn't see her after that?" he asked incredulously, turning his head to glance at the blond teenager.

"No, sir, we didn't. We searched the island by foot and by dragon and there was no sign of her," Astrin explained, eyes narrowed in concentration in front of him. His Deadly Nadder looked like it was fighting to stay the speed her rider wanted her to go, and the rider himself looked ready to sleep. When this blew over, he was going to order the teenagers to sleep and not come out of the house until they didn't look like death any more.

"You didn't look for her on any neighboring islands?" Stoick grunted. His nerves were getting the better of him, and he knew it wasn't going to die down until he found his daughter, safe and alive.

The boy tensed, slightly shifting his position on his dragon, eyes widening but steering clear of the chief.

"Astrin," Stoick huffed, clearly not in the mood for secrets, "what is it?"

"I—the twins and Fishlegs, they said earlier that even our dragons weren't able to track her down," the boy stuttered. He paused, clearing his throat, still looking straight ahead. "And, they said that even if she was carried to another island by a dragon or if someone took her, Toothless or Stormfly would have been able to follow her scent and find her."

Realization crashed into the chief, making his chest ache and guts feel like stones. "They didn't smell her," he finished the line the boy was obviously struggling to get out.

"The last place they found her scent was in a clearing where she was picking berries. But after that—no, nothing."

He sighed, scrubbing his face in frustration. "So, no one knows where she is?"

"No."

"And no one knows how she disappeared?"

"No," Astrin said sadly.

"Could she still be on the island?" Unless a dragon carried her away or the girl made a new enemy he didn't know about. She was quite good at that.

"We don't know, which is why Ruffnut and Tuffnut stayed behind. To see if she'd show up while we got help."

At least they hadn't left the island stranded when his daughter could possibly be there. "How much longer?" the chief asked gruffly. The sooner they reached their destination, the better.

"It's a day long journey—we should reach there just right before the sun starts to set," Astrin answered, and Stoick could hear the tiredness, panic, worry, and fear all laced together in the young viking's voice.

It wasn't like the chief's voice was much better, though.

But they would find her. And if someone had taken the girl—which happens more often than he would've liked—he would rescue her. Because a Chief protects his people. Especially their children.

They would find her.

They didn't.

The group of vikings that had come had no luck. The twins found no sign of Hiccup, the tracking dragons traced her scent to that spot with the dry torch and the pile of forgotten berries, and not a single villager could find a sign of the girl.

So just like that.

Gone.

"Wha's with th' big ol' building?" Gobber asked Fishlegs and the twins, as they were all searching the island together.

"Oh, uh—" Tuffnut started, scratching his chin. Well, they had planned on keeping the temple a secret, but there wasn't a reason to now, with half of Berk here and their heir missing. "—it's a temple we found. There's, like, gold and stuff inside."

"Gold?" the blacksmith raised his eyebrows, jaw dropping as he looked at the large structure. "Are ya sure Hiccup isn't in there? Tha's where I'd be if I went missing on an island with a temple filled with gold."

"We checked, and checked, and checked again. She's not in there," Ruffnut said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"But I guess checking again wouldn't hurt," Fishlegs shrugged, "it's not like we haven't checked everywhere else too."

The three teens exchanged glances then nodded. Might as well.

"Alright, let's ge' to it." Gobber started hobbling over to the building, the others following.

She wasn't in there, either.

The time they spent looking turned into days. They extended their search to nearby islands. They questioned old, locked up enemies. They visited places where Hiccup went often. And nothing. There was nothing.

Stoick eventually sent the teenagers back to Berk to rest, since they all looked ready to pass out at every given moment. He probably looked no different himself, he only rested his head for a short amount of time each night before expanding his search somewhere else.

And it wasn't like the teens help mattered. The search hadn't changed with or without them.

Everyone eventually came back to the village with heavy hearts and tired eyes. Life went on. Gobber manned the smithy, the teens trained dragons in the Academy, Stoick did his chiefly duties, the villagers went back to their perfunctory existence. But Gobber no longer hummed merry tunes or took a new apprentice, the teens didn't laugh or even bicker as they used to, Stoick let tears roam down his cheeks when he came home to an empty hall, the villagers didn't talk in loud and proud voices anymore.

Yes, life went on, but it wasn't the same.

Astrin woke to a dragon huffing and growling.

He groaned, digging the heels of his hands into his eyes. It had taken forever for him to fall asleep, and he had hopped to stay so until the morning rays of the sun warmed the village. Now that he was awake, it would no doubt take him more time than he would like to let sleep consume him. Especially when thoughts of Hiccup plagued his mind whenever he was awake.

The dragon's growling continued.

The Hofferson huffed, throwing his blanket off and stuffing his feet into his boots. Maybe Stormfly was hungry and was too lazy to get some food herself, typical slothful dragon. He had put a basket of fish in the stable before he went to bed, unless the Nadder already ate it all.

"Fat dragon," he muttered to himself, pushing his messy hair out of his face as he quietly walked down the stairs. How his parents could sleep through this, he had no idea, but he didn't care.

He grabbed a candle on one of the downstairs dressers and lit the tip before entering the stable. "Okay, okay, be quiet, I'll get you some more—"

Stormfly laid there, opening her eyes and perking her head up upon seeing her rider. Not making any sounds.

Astrin blinked. "Then who the hel...?" Eyebrows knitted together, he left the stable to let his dragon sleep. He stayed quiet for a moment, listening for the growling and huffing, before finally noticing where the sound came from and following it. Outside.

He opened the door, shivering at the cold, night air and hugging his arms to his chest. He padded around his house, poking his head out around the corner to see who's dragon was disturbing his sleep.

And there stood a Night Fury.

"Toothless?" the boy questioned, walking over to said dragon. The Fury, ever since coming back, had mostly spent his time in the Haddock Hall, most likely laying on Hiccup's bed and refusing to leave. Everyone had taken her disappearance hard, but it hit Toothless most of all. "What are you doing here?"

The dragon closed the remaining distance and nudged his nose against Astrin's stomach, who patted the Fury comfortingly. Toothless huffed again, then pointed his head to the side, obviously trying to show the teenager something.

Unfortunately for him, Hiccup was the one who understood dragons better than anyone.

"You...want me to go with you?" he guessed, looked over to where the dragon nodded. All he saw was the night sky and endless ocean.

The Night Fury shook his head, and flapped his wings once, staring at Astrin expectedly.

"Uh...you're going somewhere?"

Toothless nodded, but still kept his eyes on the Hofferson, waiting for him to say something.

"Okay, so you're going somewhere..." he said, trying to put the pieces together in his head. "Wait...you're going to go find her, aren't you?"

A nod, then the dragon looked down.

Astrin smiled sadly, setting the candle on the ground to wrap both of his arms around the Night Fury's neck. "I believe in you, Toothless," he said, pulling back for his eyes to meet Toothless' round pupils. "Find her."

He grunted in affermation. And when Astrin removed himself from the Fury, he took off, scales blending in with the night.

If anyone could find Hiccup, it was him.

Astrin told Stoick in the morning, and he seemed to agree.

Days turned into weeks.

Stoick returned home in the evening, brows coated in sweat from being out and about all day long. He hung his helmet and bear cape on the hook by the door and made his way up the stairs to sleep for the night until he would have to be out again tomorrow.

That's when he looked at Hiccup's closed door.

He paused, his foot on the top step, staring sadly at the slab of wood. He was used to hearing his daughter's voice from that room, welcoming him home before she would walk out and ask about his day. He would walk in sometimes to see her on the floor, writing or drawing something while talking to her dragon casually, like Toothless was another human being. She would walk out of that door after Stoick knocked at it and barked at her to get up, and she would emerge soon after, a little irked but overall happy and glad to talk to her father.

Sometimes, when their arguments would reach its peak, she would groan and shut herself in her room—at least, before she had a dragon that she would fly off on. When she got frustrated, he would hear her mutter something sarcastic under her breath behind that wall. At times, when the girl was doing gods know what in that room of hers, he would call out her name and he would hear several things falls and hear her yelp before she feebly said, "yeah?"

Now, all that door contained was memories.

Stoick had avoided her room ever since he came back from searching. He wasn't sure why exactly. He missed Hiccup, so much that his heart twisted whenever her name came to mind. But looking at it without hearing his daughter's voice seemed too...real. Almost like a slap in the face that she was gone, and she wasn't coming back.

But now...

The chief swallowed down something—tears, maybe—and took a few steps before pushing the door open.

Her thick, green blanket was still thrown on the bed, not neatly smothered over, almost like Hiccup had just woken up and thrown the covers off moments ago. The helmet he had given her the night before fighting the Gronkle rested on the bed post, and many of her sketches were littered on the small corner table and on the floor.

It almost looked like she had just left this morning to go to the Academy, and would come back in a day's time.

Almost.

But dust was gathering on the helmet and sketches and bed. The only indicator that she hadn't been there in weeks.

Stoick took a few wavering steps inside before sitting on the bed, drinking in all the details around him that he possibly could. All of the details he never bothered to take in before, but all he cared about now that his daughter was no longer here. He looked at small cracks, burns, and dents on the walls and floors, stories behind each one that he might never be able to hear.

Her memories were everywhere. If only Hiccup herself was here, too, to tell him everything.

Weeks turned into months.

I had kind of told myself I would update sooner...oops. Not to mention this chapter is short, a filler, and boring.

But hey, I got it done, right?

The next chapter or two probably won't have Hiccup in it, soo sorry to those that miss her. She'll be back soon!

I feel like I did a shit job with showing Hiccup's and Stoick's relationship, but hopefully all of you lovely readers will like it and not think it's too OOC.

Psst...reviews and follows and favorites kind of make me update faster.