I sat down at the edge of our temporary cave home. Apart from the view the cave had very little going for it. On Berk I could happily spend hours in my room doing whatever came to mind, but here I had nothing.

I really missed my notebook. My (many) notebooks are like a summary of my life. Starting somewhere after the age of nine up till a week ago. The latest additions probably rotting away somewhere in the cave back at Berk.

I picked up a charred stick from last night's campfire and tried drawing something on the stone floor. To no avail however. I threw the stick out of the cave, ignoring the black marks it left on my hands, dirty as I already was, it didn't bother me anymore.

I was so happy I at least had Toothless. Toothless had just come back from doing whatever she did when she left and had decided to occupy the space next to me. I rested my arm on her shoulder, enjoying the close proximity to my non-human friend.

"You know bud; it has been so long since I've had someone I could call a friend.", I said while drawing circles on Toothless's snout.

I noticed Toothless's eyes locking onto something outside, following her gaze I saw a dragon flying our way, a four-winged dragon to be more specific. A certain dragon and rider I was not willing to see yet.

I nudged toothless with my elbow, "please don't tell me you brought them here".

Toothless let out a warble and moved aside, not wanting to get crushed by the giant lizard about to make a landing, I followed her example.

The landing was spectacular to say the least, the dragon first planted its feet at the cave entrance using its wings to stay balanced, before gently walking inside.

The massive dragon bent down and finally my mother revealed herself. Without a mask this time.

"Hiccup we need to talk".


Waiting for my son to come took a lot longer I expected. It had been two days now and still no sign of hiccup.

He probably hates me. What kind of mother leaves her child at such a young age and just expects him to be alright with it?

"One more day", I told Cloudjumper. "One more day and we head back home."

To no surprise however Hiccup did not show up the third day either.

As I was packing my things, I could hear wingbeats outside. I turned to look around the small clearing when I spotted the black dragon that was with Hiccup the first time we met.


I was no longer mad at my mother, but she still didn't feel like family. It was more like talking to a stranger.

"I wa- The dragon told us to come", she explained.

I gave Toothless a quick glance of betrayal, although now I could finally get some questions out of the way. Unsolved mysteries that have been bothering me for as long as I lived.

I attended my mother with a casual "hi" and gestured her toward a place she could sit. Not that it was any better than the rest of the empty cave.

My spot was next to toothless with my back against her. Something we had grown accustomed to.

"You probably have a lot of questions"

"Why did you never come back", I asked, "back to Berk"?

She looked down, evidently ashamed, "Do you want the short or long answer"

"Short"

"Because of Cloudjumper", she put her hand on the giant dragon next to her. "When Cloudjumper took me from Berk, I accepted my faith, I knew I was going to die, but somehow we befriended each other… I was stuck on an island with my only means of transportation being a dragon."

She looked at me.

"Hiccup, what do you think would happen if I came back to Berk with a dragon friend".

I let it sink in for a moment, what she said made sense, but there was one problem.

"So your dragon friend is more important than your only son?"

I noticed my mother eyes starting to get wet. Finally, something we had in common, well except from the whole dragons thing. Vikings don't cry. Most of Berks population didn't show any emotions, but my mother looked broken, unable to form a proper answer.

"Cloudjumper would be killed", she paused, "I would get exciled for befriending a dragon, betraying the people of Berk. There was no option in which I could have been there for you Hiccup. I didn't even know where I was"

For the first time since our initial meeting, my anger towards her was replaced by sympathy. Me in Toothless were in a similar situation, but staying away from Berk was probably easier for me than my mother.

"So… You can talk to them? Understand them? The dragons I mean.", I changed the subject.

I saw her face brighten up little bit when the conversation shifted toward dragons. "Not really, but Cloudjumper is a great translator"

I looked at the dragon in disbelieve, "It Speaks Norse?".

A small smile betrayed my mother features, "He repeats everything in very basic dragon speech", she said putting emphasis on the dragon's gender. "In my many years of living amongst them, I understand about as much as a hatchling".


We had been catching up for a while, it had to be at least two hours. Most of it about me and the village. I didn't hold back, I told her about my status in the village, the never-ending dragon raids, my job as Gobber's apprentice and my father.

In the time my mother was gone she had probably lost track of time. She had to ask me how old I was.

Now however, the topic was shifting to more recent happenings. More specifically towards Toothless. My mother had never seen a night fury before. And I couldn't even answer most of her questions about the dragon, I simply didn't have the answers. How long have I known Toothless, a week now? Maybe less?

"How old is she?", my mother asked me.

"I don't know"

The large dragon Cloudjumper decided to join. He warbled something at Toothless who had almost fallen asleep. Toothless opened one eye at the dragon giving a short warble back.

I looked at my mother who seemed to understand what the dragons said.

"I can't translate directly Hiccup, but she is about 1 or 2 years older than you", she told me: "dragons don't use years"

"Tell me Hiccup, how did you father react to your night fury friend?"

I knew this topic would come up eventually, while I had told her before about my 'broken' relationship with my father, I never said anything about how I ended up here.

"He doesn't know", I answered quietly.

"I was taken by Toothless during a raid once, but I returned. When I returned that day, I finally had an actual heart to heart conversation with my father, I would have stayed at Berk, but Toothless kind of took me away", I admitted.

"He doesn't know what happened to you?"

"I guess not"

It was silent for a moment.

"Hiccup you have to go back"

I was a bit confused by that comment, she didn't go back, how could she tell me to go back?

"I can't go back, Berk is at war with the dragons"

"No you shouldn't stay there, but your dad deserves to know you are alive", she said: "perhaps you should leave him a letter"

"But you don't understand, he is probably glad I am gone… He was embarrassed by me"

"You are the best thing that happened to him, he was the happiest man on Berk when you were born, please Hiccup, if not for your father do it for me."

I considered it for a moment, this journey would not be without risk. If I was to be seen in the village I would have a lot to explain.

"Okay, I will do it"


It was almost time to leave, we had planned to leave in the late afternoon. I would arrive at Berk when most of the village is asleep, leave my note and leave in the morning.

To shield me from the ever increasing cold, I was given some self-made clothes which my mother brought with her. Sure, they were way to large and looked awful, but they redeemed themselves in warmness.

"You ready bud?", I asked Toothless.

Toothless seemed very eager for the reasonably long flight, already bending down signing me to sit on her back.

"Let's say bye to mom first"

After a quick goodbye, we were off to the skies again. The weather was nice and clear and you could see for miles. It was amazing as ever. I was starting to become more and more confident on the back of Toothless. It felt almost like I belonged in the sky.

On our way to Berk we also made use of the opportunity to practice some risky flight maneuvers and tricks.

Soon it was fully dark, if planned correctly we should be arriving at Berk any moment now. I looked in front of me confident that Toothless knew which way to fly. In the distance, I could see light. The closer we got the more unusual it seemed, I had never seen Berk at night from this angle before, but there seemed way more light than expected.

I felt Toothless stiffen underneath me, something was not right. Shadows were obfuscating the lights in the distance every now and again. Then it dawned on me, there was a dragon raid going on.

Great, just great. The one day I arrive at Berk on a dragon and want to sneak into the village, there is a raid going on. I covered my face with one hand facepalming, this trip was going to take longer than planned.

We neared Berks signature carved out and fire wielding sea stacks, letting the incoming boats know they were on the right side of the island to go to the port.

Looking down at them my eyes were drawn to something next to them. A small island seemed to have formed there. An island with enormous scales apparently. Following the shape of the island I saw the head of the biggest dragon I ever laid eyes on.

Suddenly, all 6 eyes of the dragon snapped onto us.

"Toothless, lets head back", I urged Toothless scared by the creature below us. I held on a little better to compensate for the turn.

But Toothless did not react.

Without warning she suddenly made a rapid spin. If I wasn't holding on to her the way we did our tricks I would have surely plummeted to my death.

"Toothless STOP, let's go", I tried pulling on her neck, but got no response.

That's when my worst nightmare became true. The dragon I had entrusted my life to and actually felt safe with, tried everything to throw me off. While being trashed around, I screamed in the night fury's ears for it to stop, but nothing helped.

It was exhausting, it took so much strength not to fall off the crazy dragon underneath me. Strength I did not have.

Convinced that I was going to die this evening, I took one last look at the village I grew up in. It was really beautiful from above at night. Because of the dragon's movements, I also got a look at the shores. There was someone standing there, a figure I did not recognize, but I did recognize my bola launcher being operated by the person.

The next events all happened in a flash: The bola launcher fired and I let go of Toothless hoping the water would break my fall. But instead of escaping from the night fury's back I was now stuck on it, bolas tightly strapped around us.

Somehow not only had the person hit us, but my contraption had worked.

At least I got my redemption, we would die together now, I would die by something I crafted myself, which was responsible for bringing down the most exclusive dragon known to mankind. Maybe they will even have a proper funeral for me after such an accomplishment. Probably wondering why I was strapped against the dragon.

With incredible speed, we made an uncontrolled dash over Berk. We would not stay in the air for much longer, but at least I had time to say a mental goodbye to the world as we were about to crash into the forest behind Berk.