Toothless woke up to the sound of a strangled yell. He knew that voice too well. He leapt over to Hiccup's beside. Hiccup was sitting upright in the bed, covered in sweat and panting. He grabbed the bucket Stoick had left beside the bed and dry-retched into it. Toothless groaned sympathetically. His human was much improved but was still sickly. He wished there was more he could do.

Hiccup pulled his head out of the bucket. Although he had only dry-retched that time, he had vomited a lot the day prior. His stomach muscles ached terribly as a result. His head hurt and he felt sticky from the sweat. His burns were healing but still stung. However, he would not worry his dragon any further by showing any of his pain. He gave a weak smile, and patted Toothless on the head.

"Sorry to wake you bud," he croaked. "It's those nightmares again." He had had the same sort of dream every night, all revolving around falling and death. He had seen his mother's corpse more times than he cared to count.

Toothless nudged Hiccup gently, then grabbed the blanket and dragged it over to where he usually slept. He came back to the bed, and looked at his boy imploringly. He wanted Hiccup to sleep next to him, and there was no way a Night Fury was going to fit on that bed. He knew that Hiccup would feel safer curled up next to him.

Hiccup nodded, he shifted to the edge of the bed. Toothless offered his head as a crutch. They slowly made their way back to Toothless's sleeping area.

Hiccup, Toothless noted, seemed a lot calmer in the embrace of his dragon, as he fell asleep. Calmer, but, something was still troubling him.

Astrid hung up the last of the laundry on the clothes line. She remembered now how much she hated these chores. She had been excused from a lot of them for a while, as training dragons was seen as much more important to the development of Berk. However, since Hiccup had had his accident and fallen ill, dragon training had been put on hold.

"Now, now Astrid," her mother had told her. "Training dragons is important, but so is learning to be a good wife." And so, she had put Astrid to work, laundering and sewing. Of course, Astrid recognised the importance of this, but did not like the image it perceived; the weak woman in need of protecting. She would still be able to fight, but if she ever had children, it would be her responsibility to care for them first, and the very thought made her a little melancholy.

At least, Hiccup was getting better. Stoick had told her so. She remembered that Hiccup had always been somewhat sickly as a child, and that illness seemed to affect him much more than the other children. She always thought he was being a bit of a baby then, putting it on to get attention, but now she had seen his strength, and knew that if he was confined to a bed, that he was not acting.

Stormfly looked at Astrid as she picked up her laundry basket. Her dragon wanted to fly; it had been a while since they had gone for a proper ride.

"In a minute," she told her, and gave the blue scales a scratch.

"Talking to yourself, Astrid?" came a familiar, nasally voice.

Astrid turned around. "Hiccup, you're up!"

Hiccup grinned. He was supporting himself on a wooden crutch. Toothless was right beside him, ever ready to catch him should he fall. Judging by the dirt patches on Hiccup's pants, she guessed it had happened a few times already. It was easy to tell he had been sick; his colour was still a bit off, and he was, if possible, skinnier than before. His clothes were quite baggy. The most telling sign were his eyes; they were bloodshot and were accompanied by dark patches.

She looked pointedly at where his left leg should have been. "I guess that means no dragon academy for a while still?"

He smiled apologetically. "Yeah, I need to make a new leg. Gobber offered, but I made so many tweaks and adjustments to the last one it'll just be easier if I make it myself." He shifted his crutch slightly. "Plus, I think I've grown." He stood up a little straighter, to prove his point. "Toothless will probably need some repairs on his tail fin. The Knifewing messed it up a bit."

"Don't push yourself too hard," she said. "We need you in one piece sooner rather than later."

"Fishlegs did a pretty good job," said Hiccup, as he examined where Toothless had previously been injured. Toothless's response was a gummy smile, as if Hiccup was praising him. Hiccup gave Toothless's nose a scratch before turning back to his plans. Toothless had grown ever so slightly, so the original blueprints for his tale had to be adjusted accordingly.

He laid down his pen and wiggled his fingers. His burnt right hand protested a little to the movement. He was glad that he was left handed, otherwise writing and making the new plans would have been hell. Hiccup figured he should probably measure Toothless, to get the adjustments just right. He glanced around the table, but could not see the measuring strap (a long piece of leather he and Gobber used, with some holes punched in it to measure). There is was, on the other side of the room. He sighed, and pushed himself out of the chair, then promptly fell down. Toothless lurched forward to catch him.

"Thanks Buddy," said Hiccup. With Toothless's help, he eased himself back into the chair. He had momentarily forgotten he only had one leg. He rubbed the stump gently. His fall had knocked it and now it stung. He sighed again. Making a repairing everything would be difficult without his prosthesis. Maybe he should ask for Gobber's help, at least with making a new leg.

"Hookfang, No!" yelled Snotlout, as the Monstrous Nightmare bucked him off yet again. At least this time he landed in the ocean, and not into the bushes.

"Something is wrong with my dragon!" he complained as he surfaced.

"Your helmet is missing," said Astrid, as she and Stormfly landed perfectly on the beach. Snotlout swore and quickly dove down again to retrieve it. Hookfang seemed as though he was laughing.

"Hiccup needs to fix Hookfang!" Snotlout grunted, as he came back up to the beach. He pulled some seaweed out of his tunic.

"He's been busy."

The twins landed on the beach. "How long does it take to make a leg?" Ruffnut said. "I mean, Gobber just whacked on a piece of wood, and he was good to go."

"Gobber didn't have to control a dragon fin," came a voice behind them.

Everyone turned. Hiccup was there, and Toothless was, as always, by his side. He had gained some of the weight back, but he was still pale, contrasting with the dark circles under his eyes. Ironically, he was in fact using a wooden leg, which the twins were quick to point out.

"Yeah, making a new leg from scratch is taking longer than I thought it would. It didn't help that Gobber didn't keep any notes on the original." He grinned. "Shouldn't be too much longer."

"Then you'll be flying again?" asked Fishlegs. Meatlug liked to hover (as her short wing span allowed it), so Fishlegs was not making her land.

"Well, I need to remake a lot of Toothless' gear. It all got destroyed during that attack." Hiccup gave his dragon an affectionate rub behind the ears. "I thought I might watch you guys fly for a bit though."

"If it looks like I'm terrible at flying, it's 'cause something's wrong with my dragon," said Snotlout. Hiccup thought he saw Hookfang roll his eyes out of the corner of his eye.

"Of course there is," replied Hiccup, stopping himself just in time from rolling his own eyes. He plopped himself onto the sand. "Now let's see how you guys are faring without me."

Fishlegs, the twins and Snotlout took off immediately, showing off to the best of their abilities. Snotlout was attempting to do some loop-the-loops, while Hookfang obviously didn't want to. Ruffnut and Tuffnut argued about what to do, while Fishlegs flew in rather slow circles. Toothless looked rather wistfully at them.

"I know bud, soon."

Astrid cleared her throat. Hiccup looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"You look like a mess," she stated simply.

"Thanks."

"Have you been getting any sleep?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Maybe not as much as I could be getting, but I'm fine. Still recovering you know."

Astrid sat down next to him. "Maybe you're working yourself too hard. Like you just said, you are still recovering."

"I'm fine Astrid, really."

"We need you Hiccup," she said rather quietly, drawing circles in the sand with her finger. "We need you to be in top shape. I mean, with the academy, and there was another dragon attack on a boat last week." She stopped to take a long breath, as if trying to figure out how to phrase her next sentence. "If you're not one hundred percent, then, how are you going to help us?"

Hiccup stayed silent. Astrid took that as an 'I don't know.'

She sighed and stood up, brushing the sand off her skirt. "Promise me you'll try and take it easy."

"Astrid, I-…"

In a flash, Astrid's face was right in his. She had that aggressive, determined look on her face, like the one she almost constantly wore during the early days of their dragon-fighting training. "Promise me."

"I promise." There was no arguing with that face.

Astrid nodded, then turned, jumped onto Stormfly and took off.

Toothless gave Hiccup a weird look.

"She doesn't need to know about those nightmares," Hiccup replied to his dragon. Toothless narrowed his eyes.

"Bud, I'm not telling her." She'd only see me as weak. Vikings do not become unhinged by a bad dream.

Sorry about the long wait! I haven't made much progress, so I am uploading another chapter as a kick in the bum for me to finish this damn story! It is my new years resolution! What you are reading is about the half way point; I actually have a fair amount written. Only a tiny bit left to write :D
Check out my tumblr kellybellybee if you want. I mostly upload pictures of nail art :D