They make the wrong assumptions... Never assume, always double-check, hey guys? Anyway, enjoy another (short) chapter

Chapter 9 Lost son

Valka was pacing up and down the plaza, waiting for Hiccup to return. He should have returned two days ago. How hard could it be to just look for Outcast ships? No, if he wasn't back by now, something was wrong. She hoped that Hiccup was just on an island, taking a break from being Chief and that he could return any time, but part of her knew different. She was so worried about him. She couldn't loose him too. Not after Stoick. She stopped walking and looked at Cloudjumper. The dragon was staring at the sky, also waiting for Hiccup and Toothless to come back. She sighed and went back to pacing up and down the plaza.

Astrid joined her about an hour later, landing Stormfly next to Cloudjumper. Valka shook her head to the question in her eyes. Astrid's expression turned to an angry one. Valka had learned by now that she usually looked angry when she was worried about Hiccup. Instead of pacing up and down, Astrid stood next to the dragons, her arms crossed. The day was still young, and as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky, there was no sign of the Night Fury, or his rider.

It was midday when Eret, Snotlout and the twins suddenly barreled down onto the plaza. Their faces were grim. Obviously they had found something.

'You have to see this.' Eret said to both women. 'Now.'

Valka and Astrid looked at each other before quickly mounting their dragons. They followed to a small island, not far of the coast of dragon island. They landed and Eret gestured to follow him. He led them to a small, secluded beach.

'Look.' he said, pointing down to the sand.

Footprints. Many footprints. Most of them were washed away by the tide, but they could clearly see the large boots of Outcasts. Among them were Hiccup's. Those were easy to recognize. They also found Toothless' prints among the bootprints. They lead to the water, then disappeared.

'Hey! Over here!'

Snotlout waved them over. In front of him, half buried by washed up sand, were the cut remains of rope bola's. At least two of them. Leading away from it were Hiccup's prints, Toothless' prints and many more.

'Oh no...'

Valka knelt down, pulling something from the sand. Astrid gasped. Hiccup's sword... That meant trouble. Hiccup would never leave Inferno just lying around. Astrid bowed her head and watched as waves washed around her feet. She suddenly saw something else in the sand and she pulled it out. It was a shard of some blue crystal, hanging from a broken chain. She frowned. This didn't look like anything Hiccup...

Before she could finish the though, Valka snatched the crystal from her hand.

'The Night Fury Crystal.' she whispered. 'Wrenlou gave this to Hiccup. He told me about it. It houses the power of the Night Fury's.'

Valka sank to the ground. Her face buried in her hands. Finding all of this really destroyed the hope that Hiccup was just taking a little island on some remote paradise. No. he had been captured. Probably by Outcasts. And she knew Alvin. Hiccup had told her all about him and all the things he tried to do after he found out Berk trained dragons instead of killing them.

A feeling of unease crept over her. Hiccup was in pain, she could feel it. She suddenly stood up, looking towards the sky. Her heart was twisting in her chest and worry was gnawing away at her. She just knew Hiccup was hurt, and she just knew that it was more than just an everyday paper cut.

'Valka?'

She turned. Astrid was looking at her, worry in her eyes.

'He's hurt, Astrid. I can feel it.'

'How can you know?'

'A mother just knows these kinds of things. One day, you might know what I mean.'

Astrid didn't question the older woman. Valka was, after all, Hiccup's mother. But if Hiccup was captured by Alvin, and if he was hurt, they needed to find him. And they needed to find him very, very fast.