Chapter 9

Hiccup was doing his best to try and get up. But a large hands stopped him, Hiccup looked up to see Stoick holding him down.

"Relax, its not Drago, its just the fishing boats returning," but Hiccup hadn't heard anything instead he started hyperventilating and struggling against Stoick's hold all the while mumbling.

"He's found me, he's coming for me, he'll kill Toothless and put me in the cell."

He started struggling, and ignoring what Valka and Stoick were saying.

"No. No i have to leave, I have to get away from him," at this moment Toothless pounded over and started crooning which made Hiccup calm down a tiny bit but he was still breathing fast, just then Gothi walked in with a small bowl that had burnt herbs in it. They were freshly burnt as smoke was still rising from them. She walked over to Hiccup and waved the smoke around him. As Hiccup breathed in he grew quieter till he fell asleep in Stoick and Valka's arms. They placed him on his bed where Toothless then rested his head on Hiccup's chest and started purring.

Gothi paced back and forth across the room scratching her chin as she thought, just about when she was going to start writing some runes in the ground, Gobber barged in.

"Hey, what's with all the noise?"

"Shhhh," Stoick and Valka looked and Gobber with an annoyed expression, then back to Hiccup to see if he had waken up, thankfully he had not.

"Right, sorry," he whispered.

"So how is he?" Gobber followed up.

"He recently woke up but we had to put him down again when he freaked at the sound of the horns," Valka explained quietly.

"That sounds like the symptoms of…" Gobber was cut off when Gothi tugged at his sleeve. She then sketched a few swirls and swipes in the dust on the ground. Gobber read it and smiled.

"Just as I was saying, post-traumatic stress. It's common in people who have had a traumatic experience and have trouble getting over it. So, what do we do, Gothi?" Gobber asked the Elder.

Once again, she took her staff and drew her explanation on the ground. Gobber looked at the mess of squiggles and turned back to Hiccup's parents.

"Apparently for now he has to rest and forget about Dra- you know who," Gobber explained.

Stoick nodded to his long-time friend and got up.

"I have to return to the village, they need their chief," he said and walked out the door.

"Don't worry Gobber and Gothi, I will stay here with him, you can go," Valka told them as she too got up but only to get a cup of water from a bench on the far side of the room.

Gothi and Gobber nodded, both leaving as quietly as they could, which seemed to be a challenge for Gobber with his right peg-leg that knocked on the floor-boards with every step he took.

"Welcome home, lad!" "Good to see 'ya!" "Where have you been?" Were some of the remarks from villagers as Hiccup walked along the muddy road as he tried to get away from the village. It was a struggle walking with a new leg, even with Toothless's help. He reached the damp and misty forest late in the afternoon, and searched for the elusive trap-door.

Once he found it, he gasped at what he saw. The whole interior of the tunnels and rooms was collapsed and filled with mud. He jumped down into the knee-deep mess. There was nothing left, the underground fortress was destroyed, the dragons that lived there were long gone and the underground water section just lead to a beach.

"Hiccup?" A voice called.

Shit! He thought. He was supposed to be sleeping but when he woke up and found Valka had fallen asleep he got away.

"Hiccup? I know you're down there!" The voice called again.

Toothless wound his body around Hiccup like a cocoon and started growling. In the distance a figure appeared walking through the muddy caves. It got closer until Hiccup said;

"Mum?"

Hiccup pushed pashed Toothless and walked up to he and hugged her, Valka let out the breath she had been holding in while trying to find Hiccup.

"Hiccup, dear Thor, I'm so glad I found you!" Valka exclaimed. She pulled back to look at her son.

"Don't ever do that again!"

"What happened here?" He asked. Valka sighed.

"When you left… It just wasn't the same any more, plus the fact that one of our own betrayed us making everyone in the cult not trust each other. The cult split up and without anyone living in the tunnels, I guess everything collapsed," she explained.

The two looked around the collapsed ruins of the old tunnels that was once a happy place for the two, but now brought memories of the night that Hiccup was taken.

"Why don't we go back now," Valka said and gestured for him to follow.

But Hiccup was frozen in place. staring at the spot where Drago held a dagger to his mother's throat. He could hear screaming and smell blood. But before he could think of the worse any longer his mother pulled him back to reality.

Valka was in front of hiccup now looking at him.

"I will never let anyone hurt you again," she whispered as she hugged Hiccup.

"Lets go back shall we?"Hiccup nodded and the two two started walking back to the village with Toothless jumping and running around them in an attempt to get Hiccup to smile again. But Hiccup remained emotionless, the entire way back.

By the time Valka, Hiccup and Toothless got back to the village it was dark and the only sign of life was the patrolling guards walking through the village with torches.

They walked over to the house, the light of the fireplace keeping them from falling over the steps.

Valka opened the door, only to hear Stoick getting up from his seat and coming to the door.

"Where have you two been?!" He yelled.

Valka closed the door after Hiccup and Toothless walked in.

"Hiccup ran off because he was upset. But were alright," she said.

"What, what, why would you run of that is completely irresponsible of you, you're injured you could have gotten hurt!"...Hiccup didn't hear anymore from his father as Stoick morphed into Drago before his eyes yelling at him and insulting him, Hiccup's breathing got faster and he backed up to the wall before sliding down and cradling his head whispering.

"Dont hit me!" Over and over again. Stoick and Valka were stunned silent at Hiccup's reaction. The rushed to him and held him in a tight hug, soon after Toothless wrapped them all in his wings crooning softly.

"I am so sorry for yelling, son, I was just...worried I had lost you again," Stoick said as his voice cracked.

"No one is ever going to hurt you again," Valka said.

Time skip to tomorrow.

There was a constant knocking sound coming from the door. It was driving Hiccup beyond insanity so he got up from the bed that had been moved down stairs so he didn't have to use the stairs as often and opened the door saying.

"What!...oh hi Astrid, hi!" Astrid giggled at Hiccup's stuttering she was glad something hadn't changed.

"Hi hiccup, I was wondering since you haven't been out of the house yet would you like to come to the mead hall for some breakfast?" Just as she said that Valka walked up behind Hiccup giving him a small heart attack.

"He would love to," she said while shoving him out the door and closing it.

"Wait, what?" Hiccup said as the door opened again and Toothless came out smiling as he saw Astrid after 5 years.

"Oh my gods Toothless look at you!" She said as she scratched underneath Toothless's chin. Hiccup smiled as he saw Toothless and Astrid talking after so long.

Astrid turned to him.

"Come on lets go get some food," and the three of them walked off to the mead hall.

Halfway to the mead hall Hiccup said;

"Not to sound rude or anything, but I won't have to eat breakfast with Eret, will I? Me and him don't get along that well," Astrid looked at him from the corner of her eye noticing how Hiccup looked as he spoke about Eret.

"I don't know, properly not. We haven't been talking since we broke up," she said, Hiccups head turned around with a dumfound look on his face.

"What?"

"Yeah. After I confronted him about him working for Drago he admitted it and told me every dirty secret he has hid from me so I dumped his sorry ass."

"Astrid I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. Things were going south for a while."

The rest of the walk was silent and as they approached the mead hall doors Hiccup mumbled;

"Its like nothing has changed...except for all the dragons hanging around."

Astrid smirked and then opened the door to the loud mead hall, everyone turned to see who it was before going silent at the sight of Hiccup and the nightfury, silent.

Then everyone rushed over bombarding him with questions.

"How are you?"

"What type of dragon is that?"

"Where have you been?"

And then one that made Hiccup's blood run cold.

"Why did you betray us to Drago?"

Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at Mildew. Everyone started yelling at him.

"He didnt!"

"He was taken!"

"You idiot!"

But Hiccup was gone he was trapped in the horrifying memories of what Drago had done, his breathing was coming out faster and the yelling was getting louder, HIccup walked backwards and opened the door. As everyone was yelling at Mildew, Astrid turned around to see Hiccup and the emotion that was on his face scared her. It was like he wasn't there anymore.

"Hiccup…?" He turned to look at her in fear before saying;

"Stay away from me Drago!" and running out the door with Toothless behind him.

"Wait!" Astrid started following him and found that he had run into the woods.

thats right clif hanger hahahahaha