I hate school...I hate writer's block...I also won't be writing fanfics for a while after I finish this one since I'm entering NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month which is this November. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in on month! Let's see if I'm up to the challenge.

Chapter Ten: The Sea Dragon

"S-s-s-scauldron!" Fishlegs screamed at the top of his lungs. Hiccup stared wide eyed at the large dragon. The Scauldron hissed, it's eyes scanning the boats. Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows. "Is he looking for something?"

The Scauldron hauled itself onto the boat with the viking teenagers, tilting it immensely towards the large sea dragon. Stoick, Gobber and Sven grabbed the side of the ship, stopping them from falling towards the Scauldron. The viking teens however, were sliding down the deck of the ship with Mildew.

Mildew crashed into the mast and held, letting out a girly scream and yelp as he did. Astrid stretched her left hand, grabbing one of the ropes that held onto the mast. Her right hand stretched out and gripped Snotlout's feet, who reached out to Ruffnut who then quickly grabbed onto her brother. Tuffnut's arm shot forward and wrapped fingers around Fishlegs who quickly got a hold of Hiccup's prosthetic foot, making the young heir exclaim in surprise.

"Don't pull it off!" he yelled. Fishlegs quickly changed his grip to Hiccup's right foot. Suddenly the strap of the straw bag holding the Dragon Flowers snapped and the bag fell off of Fishlegs' back, falling down towards the Scauldron's open mouth. "So that's what he wants," Hiccup whispered to himself. His eyes quickly followed the bag as it glided down the deck.

Astrid was struggling on her grip with the rope. "You guys need to hang on by yourselves!" she shouted. Astrid dug her feet onto the wooden deck, trying to gain some solid ground. Hiccup's left arm went for the hilt of his sword. He drew the blade as his arm shot forward. Quickly, Hiccup's sword hooked the unbroken strap of the bag. "Got it!" he exclaimed. "Astrid, pull us up!" Hiccup wrapped his arms around the bag, not wanting to lose it again.

"Easy for you to say!" she groaned loudly. To her surprise, Stoick slid down beside her and took Snotlout's hands, dragging him upwards along with all the viking teens just as the Scauldron snapped it's jaws forward. Hiccup yelped. "Why does it want the Dragon Flower so badly?"

"Maybe I forgot to mention it," Fishlegs spoke up softly, "but I've heard legends that the Scauldron feeds on it. And be careful or you'll get soaked in boiling hot water! It could burn your flesh right off your bones!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Hiccup grumbled. His father pulled him up by the collar, tugging him off Fishlegs. "You alright, son?"

"I'm fine, dad," Hiccup answered. Stoick placed him back onto the deck as Hiccup wrapped one hand around the side of the ship, the other firm on the straw bag.

The Scauldron lets out a hissing sound. It stepped forward slightly, rocking the entire boat. "We have no choice," said Gobber over Mildew's screams. "We're going to have to kill it."

Stoick nodded.

"Wait, what?" Hiccup cried. "Dad, no, you can't! It's a dragon!"

"That dragon is after the antidote for our poisoned ones. If he doesn't go down, we're losing every single dragon on Berk."

Reluctantly, Hiccup sucked in his lips as Stoick got out an axe that was caught at the helm. As if the Scauldron knew what was going on, it got off the ship and dove back into the water. The ship titled to it's normal angle. Hiccup's breathing quivered. "That's it?" Tuffnut asked. "Well that was easy."

"I don't think it's gone yet," Astrid whispered, her gaze following a green shadow beneath the waves as it circled the ship. The Scauldron suddenly disappeared.

"Is it gone?" Mildew asked softly in a shaking voice. "Get me off of this ship right now!"

"And into the water?" Snotlout smirked. "Gladly." Mildew laughed sheepishly. "On second thought, I'm rather fond of the boat."

A second later, the ship leaped several meters into the air, earning yelps and screams from the vikings on board. A couple drops of the boiling water rained on Hiccup's hand, making him loosen his grip on the side of the ship and was thrown into the air.

"Hiccup!" Astrid screamed. The boat started to fall back down towards the sea, with Hiccup right above it. At the corner of his vision, Hiccup saw that the other ship, the one that his father and Gobber came with, was slowly drifting away. With one arm still wrapped tightly around the bag, Hiccup extended the other, grabbing the sail and clung onto it for dear life.

The ship slammed back into the water and the Scauldron emerged again. It's eyes were glued on Hiccup who had hauled the unbroken strap of the straw bag over his shoulder.

"Hiccup, look out!" Stoick cried out from beneath. Hiccup whipped his head around to see a pair of massive fang aiming for his face. With his right arm holding onto the sail, his left went for the sword and lashed it at the sail, ripping it under Hiccup's weight and he swooped down just as the Scauldron's teeth crashed into the sail. The force was so much that the mast of the ship was torn off and thrown into the water as the Scauldron launched itself over the ship. It crashed back into the waves and shook the sail off before coming back to the boat.

Panting, Hiccup placed his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Everyone, minus Mildew, ran over to Hiccup. "Are you alright?" Gobber asked worriedly. "I'm fine," Hiccup wheezed.

Suddenly, Hiccup felt his heart sank when he noticed that the the Scauldron was looming right above him. Vapor started to appear in the dragon's mouth.

"Everyone take cover!" Stoick bellowed loudly. Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins grabbed one of the shields hanging on the side of the ship and pressed them hard against their bodies as they crouched behind them. Stoick, Gobber, Sven and Mildew did the same. Hiccup ducked behind the remains of the mast as a flurry of boiling water flew right past him.

He heard the sound of a snap. Whirling his head around, Hiccup saw the straw bag fly out towards the sea. "The antidote!" he yelled, shooting his right arm forward in an attempt to reach it. The bag flew over the deck and into the sea below. Hiccup nearly threw himself into the ocean after it when a pair of arms immediately wrapped around his torso and pulled him back.

The Scauldron rose up from the waters and in one gulp, swallowed the entire pile of Dragon Flowers, bag and all. With that, the Scauldron disappeared beneath the waves. Hiccup breathed heavily. He looked to the corner of his eye and noticed that it was Astrid who held him back. Hiccup's eyes stung and he dropped onto the floor on his hands.

"It's gone," he whispered, barely audible. Hiccup fought to hold back his sobs. "The antidote's gone." Astrid sighed and released her grip on him. Hiccup banged his fist onto the deck of the ship. "We were so close! We made it all the way to Hysteria, we found the antidote, we escaped from Norbert, only to lose at the last leg of the journey!"

"But Hiccup," Fishlegs spoke up. Hiccup turned to look at his friend. Fishlegs pointed to a bright purple flower sitting on the deck of the ship near the broken mast. "There's still one flower left."

Hiccup sighed, averting his gaze to the single Dragon Flower that remained. "But that means we can only cure one dragon," he said softly. "Then the question is who's dragon."

"Don't worry, Hiccup," Astrid told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's going to be fine. Those dragon's are tough as nails. I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Oh, so now you're saying we went to Hysteria for nothing?"

"Come on, kids," said Stoick before lowering his voice, "and Mildew, let's go home."

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Hiccup kept his gaze towards the horizon and at the figure of Berk that was growing closer by the minute. After the Scauldron left, his father and Gobber swam over to the other boat and brought it over to the wrecked up one. The vikings switched ships before heading back to Berk. It was getting late and the sun was almost touching the sea.

Hiccup's arms were at his elbows as he stared. He didn't know what else he could do. He wanted to crawl into a hole and hide in it for the rest of his life, blaming himself for losing the antidote as such a crucial moment.

Quietly, footsteps approached him. "It's going to be alright, son," Stoick said to Hiccup softly. "Thornado arrived on the island with me and he seemed alright. I just didn't bring him with me since I couldn't carry a whole load of viking teenagers on a single dragon. And I think he insisted that he was going to stay on the island and take care of the other dragons."

"What does it matter?" Hiccup grumbled, "without the antidote, the dragons are not going to be cured."

"Who knows," Gobber suddenly chimed in. "Maybe they will. Just wait until we get home. Then you can see for yourself."

Hiccup pressed his lips together and looked back at Berk's growing silhouette. Around an hour or so later, the ship anchored at one of Berk's docks. Quickly, Spitelout, Snotlout's father came running towards them.

"What's wrong?" Stoick asked him. Spitelout was panting. He took a deep breath in before answering, "It's the dragon's Stoick. They're-"

Before saying another word, Hiccup ran off the ship right past the two adults. "Hiccup, wait!" Astrid shouted but Hiccup ignored her. He climbed up the ramps the piers, up into the village plaza. He darted in between all the villagers swiftly, refusing to turn to talk or slow down for a single moment. Hiccup raced up the stairs towards his house. Outside, Thornado was at the door. Hiccup didn't bother to greet the Thunderdrum and flung the door open albeit a little violently.

Inside, Hiccup saw a scene that broke his heart. Toothless was curled up near the fireplace his eyes closed. Gothi was kneeled down next to him. Hiccup swallowed hard. "How is he?" he gulped.

The sound of footsteps piled in behind him as Astrid, the other viking teens, as well as Stoick and Gobber arrived at the Haddock House.

To their surprise and Hiccup's massive relief, Toothless' eyes fluttered open. His gaze was happy and cheerful. The Night Fury pounced himself onto Hiccup in a second. Everyone else stepped out of the way as Hiccup was pushed onto the floor with Toothless licking his face.

"You're alright," he breathed. Hiccup swung his arms around the dragon's neck and turned to look at Gothi. "What happened?"

Gobber stepped forward when Gothi started to draw on the floor again. "Ah," said Gobber, "she says that the dragons were just reacting to the flowers. But they weren't around long enough for the dragons to be severely poisoned. So when the flowers were dug out, the dragons healed on their own."

"So that means Stormfly, Meatlug and the others are alright too!" Astrid exclaimed excitedly. Gothi nodded as the viking teens cheered and whooped. Toothless stepped off his rider, allowing Hiccup to stand up straight and patted the dragon on the head.

Suddenly, a large pang of pain hit Hiccup in the head. His vision blurred immediately. Hiccup stumbled forward. The cheering died down. "Hiccup?" they all whispered.

Hiccup started to see double. His arms were suddenly numb, his legs stiff and his chest incredibly tight. Hiccup felt as if he was being strangled. His eyes closed as his legs gave way and he suddenly fell forward.

"Hiccup!"

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For those of you who've read the books, you know what's going to happen next. :3