I.

Hiccup started up the long, inclining crawl by himself. Phantom pains he could nowadays normally ignore coursed through the nub of his poled appendage. As the man was passing the last of his stone-bricked construction projects; ones he had designed and contributed to building - a hand shot out from behind the wall and reeled him in like a fish on its line.

"Ah no ya don't!" Astrid glowered down at him, turning Hiccup to face her.

"Astrid!" He pulled against her hold.

"And where do you think you're going?" she inquired with one hand curled to her hip.

Hiccup lolled his head to the side in exaggeration and pointed up with a crutch tip to the top of the jagged cliffs he would usually fly up to aboard Toothless. The nineteen - year - old girl smiled at him deviously and brought him closer to her face, gazing into his eyes.

"You made a promise to my cousin," a flame sparked in her own, "and when you make a promise to him, you make a promise to me." Astrid puckered her forehead and let him go.

"I said I would think about it," Hiccup corrected her as he brushed himself off.

"And you haven't?" She folded her arms. "I mean…," she sighed. "didn't it mean more?"

He detected her underlying pain and moved closer to her. "Astrid," Hiccup started to cup her chin but decided against it, "Of course it meant more, but things… they're different."

"Yeah." She muttered, looking away.

"We'll always be friends." He tried persuading her.

"Sure." Astrid's arms remained folded.

Hiccup rolled his lankily brawny shoulders back and held his chin up. "I'm sorry Astrid."

"I'm sorry too," She threw up a resigned arm.

All of a sudden an enormous body of black was on top of Hiccup, pinning him down in a cupping, claw hold so as not to squish him. "Toothless!" he exclaimed. "Down! Get off!"

Looking sideways and then the other way, the Night Fury used his twelve-foot-long wings to gently but securely wrap Hiccup to his chest and used his back wing vanes to bandana his mouth so that he couldn't protest. With Astrid whispering something into his ear flap and then pulling herself aboard with his brown belt, the dragon sent his friend a gummed smile and waddled away from sight to avoid any witnesses. As this went on, Hiccup kept struggling the entire time to get away before finally Astrid gestured at Toothless. He gave a complying nod and released his lower vanes. "Now Hiccup, don't make any loud noi-,"

"HELP! My deranged dragon and psychotic ex-fiancée are kidnapping me!"

The rest of his tirade was lost against the material of Toothless's wing vanes.

"All right," Astrid flung herself down and said to him hastily from a side-saddle position.

"All right, what?" Hiccup whispered huffily when he was again granted a release.

"You made a promise to Asterisk and by Gods you're going to keep it!"

"What do you mean? How can I - I, you guys are co-conspiring against me."

"You'll see what we mean." Astrid said confidently as she flung herself back up.

"Astrid!" He complained. "Toothless, buddy," Hiccup desperately pleaded. "I'm sorry, if you heard anything or saw anything, I'm sorry. But whatever's going on with you I just-,"

Shadows fell over them and the dragon turned back to look at him with wide green eyes.

"I can't…" his words stuck inside his throat. "help. My father, Toothless." He said.

The dragon moaned softly, sorrowfully.

"I'm sorry, buddy. I really am." Hiccup felt his voice choke in guilt and sadness.

A dark overhead suddenly caught the young man's attention. He looked around, nothing less then confused to see that they were entering one of the mining shafts that had been headed by Gobber to possibly acquire underground rock minerals used for medicine. As they went along through the tunnel, Hiccup saw the long metal tubes and special panels of see-through rock he had come across and then had had others solidify inside that cast out long speckled ribbons of white light. He was enamored by the kaleidoscope lighting.

This is what he referred to as 'under ground solar panels.'

"'This is what a child does.'"

His father's words reverberated off the insides of Hiccup's head. When he looked up he saw that Toothless was studying him again, his eyes taking on a sudden blue undertone.

The man tilted his head in wonder of this when they finally arrived to a large, unearthed area that rose many feet above them. It had been months since Hiccup had seen the work being done because of his leg and his Hoop-Ball captain and architect roles, but it was a sight to behold how much work was being done. The work, however, was not expected…

… Because it wasn't mineral mining. In fact, there was no mining at all.

"What the he-,"

"Hiccup!" A jovial voice greeted him. Toothless placed him on his feet and gave him a nuzzling nudge against the back up to meet Gobber who shook his hand enthusiastically.

"Gobber."He accused through clenched teeth.

"Welcome to team Help-Toothless-prepare-to-journey-off-and-meet-Thunder-Angels."

"Can I talk to you…" Hiccup grabbed at the man's arm tightly. "In private?"

As his former master guided him to another area, the young man gazed back.

The Night Fury was watching him with drooping eyes.

"I'm sorry, Toothless," He mouthed.

Raising his foreleg up, Hiccup glimpsed the empty, modified stirrup that needed his help.

The look the man gave him said 'I know that'.

Before Gobber pulled him into a separate room, Toothless closed his eyes, under tucked his wings and leaned his head forward. When his lids shot open, the conflicted face of his rider and partner was reflected four times. Thin ebony irises divided Hiccup into separate segments across each green sclera. He brought his brown brows together and turned away from looking into the dragon's eyes; Hiccup heard Astrid gasp and realized the truth then.

OoO

"They're called Thunder Angels."

Gobber looked down at his low-spirited charge.

"What about them?" the young man muttered.

"What about them is…" He leaned into a now alert Hiccup's face, "Without a Night Fury to encounter, they'll throw off the natural order of things my boy. They'll be throwin' out more chaotic weather then you've ever seen, Hiccup. And that's not much to begin with."

"But how? Why? What makes these Thunder Angels so powerful?"

Gobber sighed heavily and massaged his temples, saying, "Legend has it that in order to keep the balance of nature in tact, Thunder hast to have Lightening in order to survive…"

"…So if Thunder Angels are the source of thunder And," Hiccup enthused, "They come before Lightening, then they'll get thrown out of whack without Lightening around. But,"

"Now you're gett in' it." Gobber said solemnly.

"But whose power is based on lightening? What would the Thunder Angels need in order to keep from doing this? What-," He froze in place as his former master nodded the truth.

"It's not just a legend, Hiccup. It's a fact. For centuries Night Furies have done this."

"No." the man shook his head. "No! We didn't know anything about them until me."

"It's all right, son." Gobber patted his shoulder. "You will have to make a journey to the Lightening Torrents - the Night Fury's breeding grounds - and then on to the unexplored Thunder Isles. Since the world is flat, you'll need to go no further then that. It will just-,"

"How," Hiccup cut him off with flat-voiced accusation. "how do you know all of this?"

"Because, Hiccup," the old man kept his gaze, "the pirate ship I was on traveled there."

"And what happened to the Night Furies? I understand Toothless's urges a little more but - but why all the secrecy?" He shook his head. "You know me, Gobber, tell me the truth."

By now his old friend was shadow-veiled and away from the earth-embedded light pole.

"The truth, Hiccup, is that because of me and the other pirates…"

"No." He said in shock.

"…Toothless is the last of the Night Furies and only you and he can make this journey."

OoO

It was nighttime before Hiccup re-emerged to the top of Berk. He had told Toothless that they were leaving without even pausing to see what his friends and the older villagers had been working on. The Night Fury silently walked from the wood - shafted entrance with a wordless Hiccup straddling the side of him and holding onto the harness while his pegged foot was attached to the stirrup. They both weren't saying much to each other right at the moment, because words were not needed to communicate. But this was different because not only were they not making noise; they weren't communicating at all which was rare-:

They always communicated with each other. It was second nature for them.

Before they reached the base of the rocky cliff, Hiccup suddenly looked up at the sky that was set ablaze with stars and switched his eyes to the ground in decisiveness. In one swift motion, the young man swung himself around and caught the upper part of the harness. It surprised Toothless so much that the '20 - foot - tall reptile issued out an uncertain growl.

"I said I wasn't going to let them help you," Hiccup told him, showing a willingness as he leaned forward and touched the dragon's snout. "But I will always be here to help you…"

…

Toothless leaned his head into his friend's chest and was embraced by him with a smile.

To be continued…

A/N: Yes, some of it is absolute mush now shut up. ;)