He dreamed of her that night. Her hooves floating over the grass, her mane and tail gently waving in the wind, her eyes sparking with mischief. She called out to him, and he ran to her. Her soft, gentle nickers reached his ears, and he bounded forward.

He breathed in her warm scent, and let out a loud whinny, wanting to bury his muzzle into her soft mane. He yearned for her comforting touch.

Spirit.

Rain... my Rain.

Just before he would have reached her, she turned from him. He bolted after her, but a dark abyss sprang up between them. From across the ravine, she turned to look at him, tears welling in her eyes.

I'm sorry, Spirit.

He felt as if his heart were shattering, the peices raining down around him to rest on the grey grass. She was his only connection to his homeland, his only hope... and she torn from him.

Please, no! he cried, his voice breaking. Rain, please! Don't leave me!

His chest ached; he felt hollow inside. She gave him one last soft, sad nicker, and was gone.

No.

"A downed dragon, is a dead dragon."

Each word felt like a blow of the hammer, the echoes reverberating through Hiccup's ears. It was the end of another day. The teens were with him at the top of a tower, roasting hunks of meat, as Gobber told the tale of how he had lost both his hand and foot.

Hiccup stared into the fire, feeling the heat wash over his face as thoughts began scurrying through his mind.

Dead dragon... without a tail, Toothless would be trapped in that cove forever, unable to fly.

But what if... he thought, starting to sit up straighter, what if I made him another tail? With that simple sentence, ideas began to pour into his brain, jumbling and tangling up, like strings of delicate thread. Slowly, carefully, Hiccup began to untangle them.

Still sorting, Hiccup quietly got up and left the circle, the teens' voices fading out from behind him.

"Your mom let you get a tattoo?"

"It's not a tattoo, it's a birthmark."

"Okay... I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before."

Toothless opened his eyes and yawned, feeling the sun beat down on him from his place on the rock. The stallion... what was his name? had slipped out of the cove early that morning by a passageway too narrow for him to follow. Even if the dragon could, he still wouldn't be able to get off the island. The Night Fury rolled over on his back, then almost fell off the edge. In a moment, he twisted back to his stomach and ungracefully scrambled down to the ground, glad no one was around.

As he raised his head, he caught the scent of the boy, Hiccup, which was almost overpowered by fish.

Why does he care so much about me? Toothless wondered. Why does he keep coming back?

Soon the Viking boy entered the cove, carrying a wicker basket. "Hey Toothless," he called, as the dragon sidled away. He still wasn't used to having Vikings in such close proximity. "I brought breakfast," he dumped the basket on the ground, fish spilling out onto the ground with a slurp, "so I hope you're hungry!"

Are you kidding? I could eat a whale! Toothless snorted, stretching his head forward to sniff the fish.

"I've got some salmon," Hiccup said, beginning to edge around him.

Haven't had one of those in ages!

"Some nice Icelandic cod..."

"Nice" is an understatement, Toothless thought, trying to pick out the different smells of fish. There was one that smelled suspiciously like…

"...and a whole smoked eel."

Wait a second, are you trying to poison me?! Toothless' eyes narrowed at Hiccup, and the dragon began growling slightly as he took a step back.

"Uh, you don't like eel?" Hiccup held it up.

Toothless raised his wings and roared. Get that thing away from me!

"No, no, no!" Hiccup said quickly, and threw it off to the side, obviously realizing his mistake. "It's all right. I don't really like eels either."

His voice was gentle and calm even though it held a touch of nervousness, and Toothless relaxed again, digging his nose into the fish to check if there was anymore eels. Satisfied, he began gulping them down.

He heard the boy muttering to himself as he walked around, but Toothless kept eating, absorbed in filling his belly after two days of hardly eating anything. He felt and hand brush against his tail and swept it away, irritated. He felt it again, and swept it away once more, while shoving his face into the basket where the smell of fish still lingered.

Toothless gave a snort as he felt a band tighten just above the fin of his tail. Then, something was attached to the fin. His tail was whole. The dragon wriggled in anticipation, then he could stand it no longer: he took off.

But even though his tail was whole... it did not work. Toothless felt himself loosing control, like he had done so many times before; he was going to crash into the wall…

The tail snapped open, and suddenly Toothless found he could turn. He was free! Toothless swung around and glided back over the pond. Then he heard a voice shouting in triumph. He looked behind to see none other than Hiccup, clinging onto his tail for dear life.

I don't give free rides, Toothless thought, rolling his eyes. The dragon flicked his tail, flinging Hiccup into the pond.

However, the moment the boy let go, the tail became useless, nothing but a heap of metal and canvas. Toothless strained his wings, but simply tumbled into the pond himself, sending up a huge splash of water.

"Yeah!" Hiccup yelled, pumping his fists into the air.

Ruff couldn't believe what idiots Snotlout and her brother could be. They were learning to fight the Hideous Zippleback, strange dragon with two heads. One head would breathe gas, and the other would create the sparks to ignite it. Gobber had separated the teens into pairs and supplied them with buckets of water to quench the correct head. With all the smoke in the arena, Tuff and Snotlout had thought Astrid and her were the Zippleback. Now she was soaking wet.

As she chucked the empty bucket at Tuff, for calling her a dragon, a tail snaked out of nowhere, tripping both her and Astrid. Now only Hiccup and Fishlegs remained with full buckets. As luck would have it, both wasted them.

Uh... this isn't good, Ruff thought, beginning to back out of the arena. She stopped at the sound of Hiccup's voice.

"Don't make me tell you again. Get back!"

Ruff looked back, her jaw dropping in amazement. Hiccup... was he... what was he doing? The Zippleback was backing away from him, into its cage. It stayed there while Hiccup shut the doors. As she quickly glanced around, she saw the others shared her feelings.

"Well, are we done?" Hiccup casually asked, turning around and wiping his hands on his tunic. "Because... I got some things I need to, uh..." he ran off.

Well that was... unexpected.

Hiccup couldn't believe it. Every day, he learned more about dragons. Every day, he got one step closer to flying with Toothless. Every day, his life got a little bit better.

First, the saddle. Hiccup gathered strips of leather and crossed them over and over, stitching them all together into a flat, oval-shaped pad. That done, Hiccup decided to find a way to keep the prosthetic fin open. He tried attaching a string to it, and holding on to it with his hand, but once, when he pulled too hard, they both tumbled into the water. To keep himself from flying off, Hiccup made a harness for himself, with a strap and hook that attached to the saddle.

He not only learned things that would help in riding dragons, he learned about the dragons themselves. Like how they would relax when they smelled a certain type of grass Hiccup called "dragon-nip". Or how they loved to be scratched at the base of their neck, falling over when touched in a certain place below their chin.

All of this knowledge Hiccup put to work in the arena. And it was paying off. No longer was he the laughingstock of the village, the source of all the teasing and taunting, he was almost a hero. He could hardly step out his house without being swarmed by his new "fans". It seemed Ruff, especially, had taken a liking to him.

However, one thing was bothering him. Through all this time, Hiccup saw little of Spirit.

Spirit let out a long sigh and kicked at the ground. The darkened, grumbling sky above him matched his feelings exactly. It had been weeks, and he had seen no trace of other horses. He was beginning to believe he might be the only one. That Rain might be... dead.

The stallion swallowed hard. If only he had been faster, if only he had been able to reach her in time…

A stone settled into his stomach, and he pawed, pinning his ears back. Again and again his hoof struck the ground, digging into the dirt. Letting out a loud neigh, he reared into the air, striking out before coming back down with a snort. Why? Why had he come here? Why had he been cursed with this awful ability? It had caused nothing but damage and heartbreak. Why? He just wasn't meant to be here.

As the stallion began walking, his anger ebbed away, leaving a great weariness. His muzzle drooped until it was almost touching the ground. He felt so alone these days. He had no one. Spirit longed so badly to be with other horses again, to be home, but it seemed impossible.

He wondered if Hiccup had even noticed he had gone. The boy was so busy with Toothless these days.

Out of habit, his hooves began to tread the familiar path to the cove. When he reached the entrance, Spirit saw Hiccup with Toothless, scratching the dragon just behind his head, while it purred loudly with pleasure. Spirit averted his eyes, a lump growing in his throat.

Didn't even notice I was gone.

Hiccup looked up to see the Spirit near the edge of the cove.

"Spirit!" he called, but the stallion remained where he was. "Spirit?" It came out as a question this time.

Slowly, the mustang came over, his hooves dragging. What? he asked, so quietly Hiccup could barely hear him.

"Um..." Hiccup said, trying to think of something to say. "Um... I think that Toothless will be ready to fly in a couple days."

Oh. That's great. Spirit's voice was monotone. As Hiccup looked at him, he saw that the mustang's eyes had dulled, his coat lacked luster. Then you can just fly off and leave me behind. I don't belong here anyway. Spirit turned away.

Toothless had come up beside him, his eyes concerned. He crooned softly and nudged the stallion, making him look up.

"Spirit, I'm so sorry," Hiccup breathed, holding out his hand and letting the stallion rest his muzzle on it, feeling the warm breath flooding out of the stallion's nostrils. How had he not noticed this before? Why hadn't he paid more attention? "I didn't mean to abandon you, I really didn't, it's just... I'm sorry."

Spirit glanced away, looking uncomfortable, but simply said. Sorry, that was mean of me. I'm just... I'm beginning to think Rain's gone.

"This is a big island," Hiccup said quickly. "I'm sure Rain's out there somewhere. When Toothless is able to fly, we can all go looking for her; you from the ground, us from the air."

Spirit gave him a half-hearted smile. Thank you.

"I mean, he's not really hurting them... he's just... controlling them. But he still won't answer any of my questions. It's always 'Oh, uh, gotta go!' " Ruff groaned as she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling of the cave.

So... maybe you don't have to kill them? Rain prodded.

Ruff snorted, ignoring the question. "Astrid is furious! Guess she's not used to being bested. Who'd have guessed a scrawny, clumsy, Hiccup would turn out to be such a great dragon... trainer?" she trailed off.

You've sure been talking a lot about him lately.

"Yeah. So what, Rain?"

I think you're sweet on him. Rain moved into Ruffnut's vision and smirked.

Ruff scowled at the mare and sat up. "What?! I am not!"

The mare gave a loud whinny of triumph, and began to prance in circles around her, much to Ruffnut's disgust.

Ruff li-kes Hic-cup, Ruff li-kes Hic-cup, she chanted in a sing-song voice.

Jumping up, Ruff grabbed a spear she had happened to bring along, holding it threateningly. "I have a spear, and... I'm not afraid to use it!"

Ruff li-ikes Hic-cup!

Ruff groaned in despair, and facepalmed. You're worse than Tuffnut," she muttered.

A young man plodded across the sandy stones, his leather shoes slapping against the rocks, his tattered black cloak billowing behind. Out of nowhere a flock of Terrible Terrors swooped down down on him, their loud cries sweeping through the silence. The hooded figure pulled an arrow from his quiver, and waved them off, laughing quietly.

"Aw, get outta here; you're not getting anything from me."

Hissing angrily, the Terrors left. The young man smiled as he watched them, letting the black hood fall to his shoulders. They were sort of cute, he thought, as he made his way to the cavern.

The late afternoon sun flooded through the cave's mouth, making the shadows lengthen. Moisture dripped from the stalactites, creating small puddles on the rocky ground.

His sister, a girl of sixteen sat at the mouth of the cave, staring blankly towards the sea. When he walked up and nudged her, the girl shrieked and jumped up, grabbing a dagger on her belt.

"Relax, Kari," he snorted. "You're as jumpy as a rabbit." He dropped a rather large squirrel on the ground. "Brought some supper. It's all I could find. Those stupid dragons are scaring away all the game, what with their constant raids and all. It'll do, though, right?"

Kari sighed, and put the dagger back in its sheath, rolling her eyes. "Elrik, at eighteen, you still act like a child." She wrinkled her nose. "Something smells weird. It's coming from your cloak, isn't it? When's the last time you washed that thing?"

Elrik shrugged, then lifted a hand to feel his dark brown hair. "I think it was the last time you cut my hair. It's still pretty choppy, so… not too long ago, I guess."

"Oh, give me a break! It's not like I can see it!" Kari snapped, scowling.

"Sorry... wasn't thinking."

"You're never thinking," Kari snorted as she pulled out her dagger and began skinning the squirrel. For a moment she stopped, then smirked. "Oh, I almost forgot. It's a new week tomorrow. My turn to go hunting, and your turn to do the cooking."

"You sure you want to go alone?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Kari felt around on the ground and picked up a stick, her fingers running over the notches she had made. "We've been here a couple weeks, I know the terrain well enough to go on my own."

Elrik was quiet for a moment, debating whether or not to tell his sister what he had seen. "He's alive," Elrik finally muttered, pulling off his quiver of arrows, and dropping them with a clatter to the ground.

"What?" Kari turned her sightless eyes to him, her fingers curving around the dagger's handle.

"Hiccup. He's still alive. Saw him walking through the woods, while I was hunting," Elrik sighed. Why did I even open my mouth?

"Why. Didn't. You. Kill him?" Kari hissed.

Because... maybe he doesn't deserve to die! There's been too much death already, Elrik yelled in his mind, but all he only muttered, "We need to think through this carefully."

"The only thing we have to think about is what Stoick will feel like, watching his only son die. Maybe then he'll understand the pain we went through," Kari spat out at him.