When we last left everyone, Hiccup was sick, Tuffnutt was being eaten by a vulture, and Astrid and Fishlegs have gotten absolutely nowhere! What will happen next? Don't ruin the surprise! Even I don't know what I'm talking about! I tell you I'm crazy!

Chapter Eight: Cold Fire and Vulture Teeth

Snotlout growled in annoyance as they stopped for the fourth time. Snotlout had a feeling that Hiccup was slowing them down on purpose. Did he not want to win? And why wasn't his dragon being more helpful? Hiccup kept saying that there was nothing wrong when Snotlout asked him why he was being so slow and Toothless would insist on stopping, despite the boys' protests.

Snotlout heard a soft thud behind him, but he took no notice of it as he continued trudging along. He was too annoyed to be stopping again. And he wouldn't have stopped if Toothless hadn't suddenly growled warningly at him that caused him to turn around.

"What is it now?" he started to snap, but suddenly stopped. Hiccup was lying in the snow unconscious and completely motionless. Sighing, Snotlout stomped over to his cousin and stared down at him. Growling, he kicked Hiccup in the side with annoyance. "Come on, Hiccup! Wake up already!" he snarled. "We don't have time for this!"

Toothless growled at him threateningly. "My boy is sick! What is wrong with you?" the dragon hissed. But since Snotlout did not speak Dragonese, he made no reaction to the dragon's comment.

"You're so lazy, Hiccup," Snotlout continued, kicking his cousin in the side again when he didn't move. "Wake up, cousin. We need to get going already."

"I'm warning you," Toothless snarled, glaring at Snotlout and lowering himself over the unconscious boy. "Don't you touch him."

"Well what do you want me to do, dragon?" Snotlout asked, waving his hands in the air. "We have to bring him back to win, otherwise I'd just leave him here." Toothless growled at him in response. Snotlout sighed. "Well what' wrong with him anyways? He said he was fine!"

Toothless rolled his eyes in replied. Of course Hiccup would say that! He didn't want them to worry.

Snotlout crouched down beside his cousin and saw with faint relief that his chest was slowly rising and falling as Hiccup struggled for breath, which came out in shallow gasps. Snotlout looked around the clearing. There was still nothing that looked familiar. There was no way they could be close to the village. He looked back up at Toothless.

"Well," he asked. "What are we going to do?"

"You are going to start a fire and get Hiccup warm. Or else I'm going to use you as the firewood," Toothless's eyes clearly said it all. Snotlout gulped and backed away before running off to start gathering wood, muttering angrily to himself.

"We're never going to win at this rate," he growled to himself as he bent over to pick up wood. Why did his cousin have to be so fragile all the time? He had been like that ever since they were both tiny. What was he going to do with him?

When he returned, Toothless had gotten Hiccup resting against his warm belly, and the Terrible Terror had curled up at his feet. Hiccup's eyes were open slightly and he stared straight ahead, as if loss in thought. As Snotlout approached, Hiccup turned to look at him, with wide, sickly eyes. Now that he looked at him, Snotlout could see that Hiccup looked terrible.

Shaking his head, he threw the wood into a pile and attempted to start a fire. He rubbed two sticks together for about half an hour in which absolutely nothing happened. Frustrated, he threw the sticks into the pile and they immediately burst into flame.

Hiccup didn't say anything as his cousin sat down beside him, his eyes were narrowed in concentration. Snotlout decided not to ask how he was feeling (that would give the impression that he actually cared) and instead gave him a look.

"What are you doing?" he asked him.

"I haven't heard anything for the past hour now," Hiccup muttered in reply. "It's like everything has gone silent."

"Well that's a good thing, isn't it?" Snotlout replied. "Maybe whatever had been making that noise has gone away to hunt something else." Hiccup shook his head in reply.

"I don't think so," he murmured. Snotlout rolled his eyes. Why did everything Hiccup say have to be ominous? It was like he was reading some sort of book or something.

It turned out that Snotlout should have listened to his cousin. Because at that moment, Toothless sat bolt up, his ears pricked and Wide-Eye started becoming crazy, screeching in warning. The two boys had to cover their ears at the sound the Terrible Terror was making. Snotlout was about to ask what was going on when suddenly out of the forest a large, pure white dragon made its way into the clearing. It was twice the size of Toothless, and ten times more vicious looking. Its glaring eyes caught Hiccup and Snotlout in its gaze and it let out a ferocious roar.

"Oh crap," Snotlout hissed at the same time Hiccup whispered, "The Snow Dragon!"

It turned its massive head towards them and with one last angry roar, leaped at them.

…

Maybe someday Tuffnut would be able to look back on this terrible day and laugh about it. But he seriously doubted it. The Demon Vulture had knocked him aside for the fourth time, and this time it had caught him in his claws. Tuffnut didn't even know where to attack the thing since it was still invisible. And kicking at it was obviously not working. When the vulture had lunged at him, he had dropped his second weapon in the snow and was rendered completely helpless.

The vulture had completely forgotten about Ruffnutt and had instead started focusing its attention on killing Tuffnutt. The boy had the wind completely knocked out of him and couldn't find the chance to breath, as the vulture tightened its grip on him.

"Get off, you stupid thing!" Tuffnutt managed to gasp, struggling furiously. By some small chance, he managed to kick the dragon bird right in the throat as it bent forward to take a chomp out of him. The beast let go him and reared back in surprise, becoming completely visible in the process. Tuffnutt took advantage of the distraction to grab his axe which was the closest thing near him.

He swung his axe at the bird as it shook his head, but it recovered just in time to grab the weapon in its humongous jaws. Tuffnutt grabbed onto his axe with both hands and struggled to pull it out of the beast's mouth. It was a fierce tug of war, but Tuffnutt just barely managed to pull the weapon from the monster's teeth.

The angry beast howled and rushed at him, but Tuffnutt was ready this time. He brought the axe down on the monster's lowered head and it caught the thing right between the eyes. It was hardly a death blow, but it was enough for the demon vulture to rear back in pain. It yanked its head away, taking Tuffnutt's axe with it. The monster staggered around, crashing into several trees and swinging its head around wildly.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tuffnutt could see the monster about to bring its massive foot down on his unconscious sister. Gasping, Tuffnutt raced over and threw himself at Ruffnutt, only just managing to pull her out of the way in time.

"Does thing have no weaknesses?" Tuffnutt muttered to himself. He didn't have time to contemplate anything else because at that moment the vulture grabbed him from behind with one of its talons. It savagely ripped the pack that Tuffnutt was carrying that contained all of their supplies right off his back. It tossed Tuffnutt aside and gulped down the entire pack down in one bite.

"Hey!" Tuffnutt growled. "I needed that stuff!" The Demon vulture ignored his comment and started making its way over to Ruffnutt, deciding that Tuffnutt wasn't worth the trouble of eating. Sighing with exhaustion, Tuffnutt slowly pulled himself to his feet and flung himself at the beast. It wasn't going to eat his dead to the world sister if he had anything to say in it.

…

The Snow Dragon must have sensed that there was something wrong with Hiccup (or it assumed that he'd put up less of a fight) because it immediately launched himself at the boy. Toothless just barely managed to jump in between them in time.

As Toothless pounced at the Snow Dragon, Snotlout jumped to his feet and only just remembered to help his cousin to his own feet. They saw out of the corner of their eyes the two dragons clawing at each other furiously.

"Come on!" Snotlout encouraged, tugging on Hiccup's arm. "We have to get out of here!"

"But what about Toothless?" Hiccup asked, turning back at his friend.

"He'll be fine," Snotlout replied with a growl. "He's handled much worse. But we have to get out of here before we're dragon food!"

"But-" Hiccup didn't manage to finish his objection as Snotlout suddenly flung himself at his cousin and threw him to the ground. The Snow Dragon had leaped over Toothless and had launched itself at the two boys, just barely missing them, thanks to Snotlout.

Snotlout glanced at his cousin and saw his breath coming out in shallow gasps, his eyes closed. He turned his head to see the Snow Dragon growling at them. It had blocked their only escape route, and its sides were heaving with anger. Behind them, Toothless stepped up and glared bravely back at the dangerous creature.

"If you want these two, you'll have to go through me first," Toothless challenged the dragon defiantly.

"It will be my pleasure," The Snow Dragon replied in a silky smooth voice. It nodded to something behind Toothless. Turning, they saw another Snow Dragon step out from behind the trees, a triumphant smirk on its face. Growling and crouching, the two dragons launched themselves at the Night Fury.

"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup cried in horror as his friend fell beneath the two massive dragons.

Cliff hanger! I know we all hate cliff hangers! Astrid and Fishlegs were not in this chapter because I felt they would be a distraction. What's going to happen to the four unfortunate Vikings? Will any of them survive? And what will become of Toothless? Gee, I don't know! Why are you asking me?

Poor Hiccup. Fate hates him. Whenever they run into trouble, the trouble always wants to kill him first. Don't forget to read and review, otherwise I'll never let you know what happens!