Hey Reader's! Sorry for the long wait. I was on vacation and didn't have time to write this next chapter. But here it is, bright and shiny and new. I was glad to hear in your comments that you guys like where the story is going. I think that because my original summary doesn't really work anymore that I would rewrite it. So if you notice it has a different summary than before, don't worry, it's the same story.

Both this chapter and chapter 6 are now edited.

Now go on, read chapter 7!

We left the dragon graveyard in the dust. So many things ran through my head as we ran back into the forest. What was going on? Why was this all happening? What was causing these vines to kill all of those dragons? While I wanted to figure out all the answers to these questions that kept popping up in my head, my top priority was to get to Toothless before anything happened to him. Hopefully, nothing had happened to him already.

Even though we needed to move as fast as possible to get to our campsite, I never let go of Astrid. Thinking that I had lost her before was enough to make me be sure that I never lost her again. Making sure that she was in sight wasn't enough anymore. I had to feel her hand in mine to assure me that nothing had happened to her. She was still crying slightly. She also seemed to not be completely conscious of the fact that we had left the graveyard and were running through the woods. If I hadn't been holding her hand, half pulling her behind me, I don't think she would have left her spot next to the dead Nadder. She kept stumbling over roots and rocks in the ground which made our progress through the forest a lot slower. I wanted to stop running and comfort her. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything was going to be okay. I couldn't do that, though. Partly because we had to get to my dragon and partly because I didn't know if everything would be okay.

"Astrid, I know this is bad, but we have to run faster." She responded by using a quick burst of speed to catch up to me. Now that she was running next to me and not being dragged behind, our speed almost doubled. It also gave me a clearer view of her. Her face was red and her eyes were swollen from crying. It's amazing how un-Astrid-like this made her look. She was usually so tough. Life as a viking is not very pleasant. It comes with its share of scars, concussions, and, until recently, lots and lots of serious burns. But through all of that, I had never seen Astrid get fazed by the impending danger of our occupation. Even throughout dragon training, when it was almost mandatory to get the crud beaten out of you all day, she never even flinched. I think her fearlessness was the thing that made me like her as much as I do.

Before everything happened, what with the dragons and all, when I had only been admiring her from a distance, her bravery had been the one thing that really stuck out to me. Of course she is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, but I mostly admired the way she was always up for a challenge. Her courage mirrored that of a much older and more experienced Viking, like my dad. Not that she reminds me of my dad or anything. That would be very strange. Anyway, the way she was always ready to charge into battle was inspiring and showed that she has the true Viking spirit we all strive for.

Seeing her the way she was now made me very nervous. If this is how Astrid, the toughest Viking I know, responded to this disaster, how was everyone else going to handle it? Honestly, the only reason I think I was still going is because I couldn't let anything happen to Astrid or Toothless. I had to be strong for us all.

We finally reached the clearing where I left Toothless. Where was he? I couldn't see him. I skidded to a halt. Astrid didn't stop as cleanly as I did so I reached out and caught her. "Astrid, I don't see him," I said pulling her towards me. "TOOTHLESS!" I yelled as loud as I could. I held my breath. He had to be here. If something had happened to him, I don't...

A black, feline-like head popped up from behind a boulder. "Toothless!" I yelled for a completely different reason.

He looked at me with his big toothless grin. Then he seemed to notice Astrid, who I was still holding on to. He ran over to us with a worried expression on his face. "It's okay, Bud," I told him, even though it really was not. "We just need to get out of here as fast as we can and get to the others." He seemed to understand me because he rushed over to where his saddle was sitting on the log. I let go of Astrid so that I could put it on him, but she grabbed my arm and followed me over to Toothless and didn't let go while I put it on. It made it harder to saddle him up with her holding on to me,but I didn't mind. She obviously needed to hold on to me as much as I needed to keep her close. As soon as I finished with the saddle, she let go so I could jump on. I reached down and helped pull her up. As soon as she was on, she wrapped her arms around my torso and rested her head on my shoulder. I could get used to this close contact. I just wish it wasn't because we had both witnessed something terrible.

Toothless took off as fast as he could. I could tell that he picked up on the urgency in my voice and knew how important it was for us to hurry. Soon we were soaring over the tree tops. I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of the others. It shouldn't be to hard to find them.

"There!" Astrid said. We had been flying for about ten minutes before she spotted Hookfang's silhouette against the setting sun. Toothless picked up speed and we shot in his direction. It didn't take long for them to see us. They picked up speed and started flying in the opposite direction. "They think we're chasing them." I could barely hear her over the wind rushing past my ears.

"This is supposed to be a game. We have to find a way to tell them that we aren't playing anymore." I had no clue how we where going to pull that off.

Toothless must have sensed how desperate I was and decided to take matters into his own hands. Claws? Oh, you know what I mean. He shot a stream of fire into the air. It burned blue and put off an intense heat. He then stopped breathing fire and just floated in mid air, staying in the same place. I looked up ahead and it looked like Hookfang had stopped flying. "I think you got his attention, Bud. Try the fire again," I told Toothless. He did what I told him, but this time the fire was almost white and hotter then before. This time it worked. Hookfang's silhouette was getting bigger and bigger. A few moments later and we were looking at the confused faces of Snotlout and Ruffnut.

"Why aren't you chasing us? Isn't that the whole point of the game?" Ruffnut asked with an annoyed voice.

"And what's with the light show?" Snotlout seemed amused. "Were you trying surrender or entertain us?"

"Hey, whats wrong with her?" Ruffnut asked pointing at Astrid behind me. I looked back at her. She had stopped crying a while back and her face was less red, but she still didn't look like the tough Astrid we were all used too.

"No time to explain," I said. "Something is wrong. We need to find Tuff and Fishleg's, fast!"

They both seemed to realize that I wasn't joking pretty quickly. "What's going on?" Snotlout asked.

"Like I told you, no time to explain. Just help us find the other two, and don't land. When we find them, we will meet up on the beach near the cliffs. It will go faster if we split up..."

"No," said Astrid. "We don't split up. Splitting up is never a good idea. Strength is in numbers, as Stoick always says." I looked at her. She looked back at me and said, softly so that only I could hear, "Please, don't make us split up." I could tell that she was really worried and decided to let her make the call.

"Okay, so we stay together. Let's find the others and get to the beach. We should be safe there. then we will fill you in on whats going on." We started flying again. The sun had almost set and I felt like the dark was creeping up on us. I reached down and grabbed Astrid's hand. I squeezed it as I asked, "You okay? I didn't know that suggesting splitting up would freak you out that much."

"When we split up back at the campsite, something really bad happened," she said. "I didn't want something else to go wrong."

Although I could see reason in this reply, I felt that she was hiding something from me. I knew that if she was that it was for a good reason, and that she would tell me when she was ready. It still bothered me, though. Had something worse happened while she was off on her own? Was there more to her story than what she had told me? I decided to just let it go for now. I had to focus on finding Tuffnut and Fishlegs before something happened to them.

As we flew, I kept holding on to her hand. I didn't intend to let go anytime soon.

Sorry that my updates are so short. I am new at the mass writing thing and am very slow. Also, you may have noticed Astrid is...well...Out of character is a good way to put it. Don't worry, she is going to be back to normal next chapter. She is just a little (or a lot) shook up.

Thanks again to my fabulous Beta Reader Cke1st!