Hey, everyone! *waves energetically* I'm back again!

I'm SO SORRY I didn't update last night. See, for these past couple of weeks, I've gotten an average of about 6 hours of sleep per night, and it caught up with me. I nearly fell asleep during dinner, and my mom said I needed to go to bed early. And I did. So, now, I feel well-rested and ready to write! *fist bump* Woo-hoo!

Oh, and guys, I got a 92 on the Spanish Exam, if you were wondering. Not as great as I was hoping for, but still really good, seeing as I'm in a class where nearly everyone is at least two years older than me.

Alright! Shoutout time!

katurdi: YES! YES, HE'S FINALLY HERE! Thanks! And, yes, it is sort of hard to write stuff a maniac would say, because Dagur is so unpredictable at times, so I really had to think it out. *pats self on back* I'm awesome, aren't I? :D

FanWriter02: Thank you! Yep, only a hillhanger... that time. Aw, thank you! That means so much! Good luck on your journey through the Spanish language. Thanks!

phiellydinyia: Trust, me, there is going to be a reasonable explanation for them finding Hiccup. They're not just going to stumble across him. Think back, to ah, late Chapter 8. Yes. That is the key!

Hiccstridlover13: Thanks for helping me with that! It was my last Oral for the year, so I'm so pumped! I love learning Spanish, though, it's one of my favorite subjects. I'm just more of a writer, not a talker. I can understand the context very fluently if someone writes it out, but if you talk... well, I'm not the best with that. Thanks for reviewing!

thepurplewriter333: Yeah! Finally some Hicc-sass! There's going to be a TON of it in this chapter, so, yay! Oh, yeah. I've got PLANS for Hiccup. *rubs hands together* Yes! I love that. Hill-hangers. Ha ha. Thank you!

flopy: I know! I kind of scared myself there, because I never planned out chapters 10-12... 0_0 But, never fear! THE AUTHOR IS HERE!

TheWoofster: Aww! Your review made me grin the hugest smile. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I'm so glad! I felt like I was rushing it at first, then going to slow, and was never satisfied. Thanks! Oh, yes, I love the father and son bonding more than anything else. Sibling and parent bonding is THE BEST. Thank you!

And now, what you've all been waiting for...

CHAPTER TEN!

Chapter 10:

Toothless sighed and set his head down. It had been hours since he had seen Hiccup. One moment, they were standing there, smiling about the luck they had finally achieved The next, Toothless glanced towards Hiccup's direction only to see that his rider was gone. He had simply vanished.

Then he had heard Hiccup screaming his name. Everything finally clicked. The weird smells Toothless had sniffed out, the prickly silence of the forest... Hiccup's disappearance. The clues were all there.

They weren't alone on this island.

Roaring, Toothless had barreled forward to save his friend, only to hear Hiccup shout out again for him to stay. Finish the plan. Not get captured. The boy was soon cut off, making Toothless worry even more. But after a few moments, he hadn't gone after Hiccup. The Viking was right. Toothless was no good to Hiccup captured.

So the dragon had ran away, back to he and Hiccup's camp. There, he would hide and figure things out. But the Dragon Hunters soon followed and Toothless, much to his aggravation, had to flee once again. And he didn't even get to shoot at the Hunters.

Toothless had spent most of the day cramped in quiet corners or scampering around. His first priority was to lose the bad men, then he could finish the plan and finally save Hiccup. He didn't know if he could wait till the other Riders came. Hiccup was in danger, and that was the only thing that blared through his mind.

Now, Toothless was squished inside a tight cave that those burly Hunters wouldn't think a Night Fury could squeeze into. He was safe. For now.

Toothless raised his head and sniffed the night air. Darkness and rain had fallen across the forest a few hours earlier, matching Toothless's mood. Angry thoughts spilled through the dragon's mind. Why hadn't he gone after Hiccup? Now, he couldn't tell where his rider was or what he was facing.

Toothless had made a plan while running around the previous afternoon. Tomorrow, just as dusk was coming, he'd try and set off Hiccup's peculiar contraption by the beach. It pained Toothless to do so, but he knew that was his best bet for calling for help. Hiccup had told him that bright things looked more prominent in the darkness, so the blast would look like the sky over their island was exploding, and therefore attracting attention. But he and Toothless had agreed to set it off as soon as they finished the machine. They needed help as soon as possible, even if it wasn't as sufficient as it could've been. However, Toothless, had only one shot at this. This had to work, or Hiccup was in bigger trouble than he already was now.

The Night Fury whimpered. Hiccup... He hoped the boy was safe. He'd better be safe, or Toothless had a few choice plasma blasts for the people that had kidnapped him. Who were 'they', anyway? The big man they called Ryker? Viggo, the unnervingly smart one? Or that deranged chief of the Berserkers, Dagur? Toothless couldn't tell from the scent of any of the Hunters he had smelled. They were just flesh, meat, and human.

Toothless shivered as a gale of wind blew through his spot. But part of his shudder was fear. Yes, the one and only Night Fury, offspring of lightning and death itself was afraid. For a Viking, of all things. The dragon snorted, wondering how his four year previous self would've handled that.

Hiccup, thought Toothless, closing his eyes. That would be his last thought for the night. Hiccup.

Be safe, rider. Be safe.

Hiccup came back to consciousness feeling truly and completely awful. His twisted ankle throbbed, his head pounded with a headache, and his side scratched by that cursed sea monster burned.

And almost worst of all, his cold was worse. His coughs sounded hollow and he sometimes spat out mucus with blood in it. Being cold was a permanent state, and his body resonated with shivers. No guard had brought him a blanket, nor a meal. Hiccup would've been grateful for even just towel, or maybe a bite of chicken to just pacify the sharper hunger pains. He didn't think he'd ever felt this hollow, even after waking from the long coma after battling the Red Death.

Still quaking, he sat up to look around. A little sunlight spilled in through the opening and the holes in the ceiling. Hiccup longed to go outside and actually see the sunrise. Or was it later than that? Mid-morning? Afternoon? He wished he knew.

He rubbed his numb hands on his arms, trying to warm himself up. Did the cells have to be on what he believed the be the coldest part of the island?

Before Hiccup could go too much into it, he heard footsteps come down the stairs. It was that Dragon Hunter, Brodir, from yesterday. Hiccup's kidnapper. The Rider slid back against the wall as Brodir came closer.

The Hunter squinted at Hiccup's shuddering figure. "Boy, I've got some news for you."

Hiccup attempted to stop quaking. "O-oh?"

"My captain, or as you call him, Dagur, will be arriving here shortly. He asked me to be his..." The Hunter's voice iced over to brittleness. "Entourage."

Hiccup shifted. "You d-don't li-like him too m-much, e-either?"

Brodir glared at Hiccup, though his scowl seemed to never leave. "It's not my place to say that, dragon boy. Now hush up and prepare for the Captain."

The Hunter pivoted to leave, but stopped when Hiccup cried out an exclamation.

"What?" Brodir snapped.

Hiccup swallowed back a cough that was itching his throat. "H-have you c-caught T-Toothless yet?"

Brodir's expression tightened. "Not yet. But, soon, boy, my fellow Hunters will find him." He made a move to go again, but Hiccup wanted to learn as much as he could when he had the chance.

"W-why a-are t-these cells h-here o-on the is-island?" he chattered.

Brodir regarded Hiccup with suspicious eyes. "This used to be dragon hunting ground," he said. "Ryker and Viggo's ancestors stayed here, we found out. They kept the ones who did really any crime, no matter how small, down here. The gods themselves landed us here as a sign that we shall once again spill dragon blood."

And before Hiccup could manage a reply, he was gone.

True to his word, Dagur appeared a few minutes later, flanked by hulking guards. The Berserker's grin made Hiccup nearly mutter, "Another reason you're called deranged..."

Then Hiccup noticed something. Dagur was carrying stuff in his arms. His bleary eyes widened when he realized what they were. Blankets. Food. Was Hiccup finally getting some humanity from the villain?

Apparently not. Because with another smirk, Dagur spread the blankets on the floor, just out of Hiccup's reach, and sat on them.

"Morning, brother!" he said cheerfully, setting the food on the fabric to keep it from touching the grimy floor. "I hope you had a nice sleep in my visitor wing! You like it, don't you?" With a cackle, he ripped off a piece of bread and started to chew. He pretended to just notice Hiccup's salivating stare.

"Oh! Do you want this?" Dagur asked.

Hiccup recoiled back. He didn't want to eat anything that Dagur had touched. But his stomach… gods, he was starving. But he knew that Dagur would never give Hiccup anything he didn't have to. "Wh-what's the c-catch?"

Dagur seemed disappointed. "You are smart. Nearly everyone falls for that trick. Yes, yes, there's a catch... see, I need information. Nothin' big, you know. Just a little something to destroy this place, or get rid of that person. What do you say?"

Hiccup rubbed his temples. His headache was getting stronger, and he coughed a little into his fist. "Y-you just s-said I-I'm smart. I'm n-not g-going to t-tell you a-anything t-that c-could h-hurt my friends o-or my v-village."

The Berserker's smile faded.

"Well, Hiccup," he began, "too bad, because I am going to extract every little piece of information I need to know from that teeny coconut-shaped noggin."

Hiccup sighed. Oh, gods, not this again... "Y-you know I-I'll n-never break."

But Dagur didn't appear to hear him. He was too busy coming up with his first question.

"Ooh, this is so exciting! My first interrogation... I usually just run them through, then ask questions- but this time, my suspect is alive!" He clapped his hands in glee, then took a bite of fish. "Alright! Now, this will be useful... what's the best way to sneak into your base?"

Hiccup rubbed his arms, trying to warm himself. "I-in the w-wide open w-where w-we c-can see y-you. You s-should be c-carrying a fl-flag. A w-white one, a-actually."

At first, Dagur seemed to be considering this, but glared when he realized what Hiccup was actually saying.

"Fine," he snapped. "We'll come back to it later. Next... how do you get a Night Fury to trust you?"

"Well, i-it's pretty simple, a-actually," said Hiccup, an answer ready. "Y-you sew h-hundreds of fl-flowers o-onto y-your clothes. P-pink ones, i-if you c-can get them. T-the girlier, t-the be-better."

Dagur's eyebrows arched. "Really?"

Hiccup refrained from rolling his eyes. He actually believes this? Okay, I can work with that. "O-of course. T-the N-Night Fury i-is a d-dark c-creature, r-right? S-so, t-there's th-this thing c-called Edgity H-Haddocky-" he paused to cough into his fist "-wh-where w-when t-the creature o-if near ex-extinction is d-drawn t-to it's op-opposite c-"

Dagur waved his hand. "I don't care about the reasons. Is there anything else?"

Hiccup sneezed, wincing as the action hurt his side. This talking certainly wasn't helping him. He prayed that Toothless would set off his invention soon so he would be rescued. "Y-yes. Y-you have t-to j-jump around singing "I-I'm A L-Little Viking" wh-while d-doing a H-Hooligan rain d-dance."

"Huh. How does that- AGH! Brother!" Dagur was angry. "You're not making this easy, Hiccup! You could have a bed, food, warmth, treatment for that ankle of yours... oh, yes, I've noticed. So what do you say?"

Hiccup stared his nemesis down. "I s-say I-I'll take it a-all."

"Hiccup, just think about- wait, really?" Dagur seemed genuinely surprised.

The Dragon Rider held up a trembling finger. "B-but I d-do h-have one c-condition."

Dagur's brow produced wrinkles. "And that is what?" His voiced turned to baby-talking. "That I won't hurt any of your friends or family?"

Hiccup leaned forward, like he was sharing a big secret. He grimaced as his body protested to the movement. "M-my condition i-is that I d-don't t-tell you a-anything. Th-that's a f-fair d-deal, r-right? Or h-how a-about w-we switch places? M-me, captain o-of an a-army, and y-you stuck i-in a jail c-cell. That's e-even fa-fairer!"

Dagur was getting really annoyed, much to Hiccup's satisfaction.

"Alright! How would you train, say, a Monstrous Nightmare?"

"I-I'm not t-the r-right person t-to ask."

"Oh?"

The Dragon Rider rolled his eyes. "I h-have a N-Night Fury, in c-case y-you didn't n-notice. N-not a N-Nightmare. You s-should ask S-Snotlout. He's t-the guy wi-with one of t-them."

Dagur blew out a breath, trying to make sense of things. "So... this Snotlout knows all about them. And you don't..."

Hiccup shook his head. "Ac-actually, he's n-not the brightest, e-either. Y-you know, i-it's not Night F-Furies who a-are the m-mystery. I-it's the N-Nightmares."

"Next question, then?" said Dagur quickly, before Hiccup could confuse him further. "Okay. Who is the most vulnerable person on your team? The boy, Fish-face? One of those twins?"

"D-definitely Astrid," Hiccup answered. "She's h-hopeless with a-an axe, s-so if she h-has one, y-you're w-winning."

Dagur set down his fish, frowning like he was no longer enjoying the meal. Hiccup, however, was relishing this, despite how cold he was. Despite how the smell and sight of food made his stomach gurgle.

"How many dragons guard your little island stronghold?" Dagur interrogated.

"Hmm... I f-forgot. L-looks like I-I've lost m-my memory! I-I'll just p-put it with y-your sanity- so-something that's a-also lost."

Dagur's jaw dropped. "Brother!" He looked around at his guards, who were whispering with each other. "Hey!" the Berserker yelled at them, whipping them to attention. "If you're not going to watch me, the leave! Of course, that means facing my wrath for being a coward..."

The guards that had started to move froze and returned to their places.

With an irritated look, Dagur looked back at Hiccup. The sight of the Rider made his lip curl. "What's the best way to get past the dragons?"

"Make as m-much n-noise as p-possible. T-the louder you a-are, the l-less likely t-they a-are to find yo-you."

"Hiccup!" said Dagur through clenched teeth. "I've been trying to be nice to you, but you clearly don't appreciate it!"

"Y-you're right, I-I d-don't. In fa-fact, you should j-just s-stop r-right now," Hiccup told him. He was now so cold that his arms were numb. Should he've stopped taunting Dagur so maybe he'd get a blanket or two? But as he looked at the Berserker's blooming purple face, he didn't regret a thing.

Dagur actually didn't seem very angry. Just sort of insane and annoyed, like he got when something or someone was frustrating him. He even gave a strained little laugh.

"Fine? You want me to leave?"

"I-I do, a-actually."

Dagur stuffed the food in his blankets. "You know, brother, I was going to give you maybe some bread or a blanket, but you- are-"

"I-I'll take t-them b-both," said Hiccup pleasantly, reaching out a shivering hand and coughing into his other. At once, he realized just how bad he sounded.

"You- I- AGH!"

Hiccup really enjoyed irritating Dagur.

Suddenly, Dagur tossed in half a loaf of bread and a sheet that was so thin and small that Hiccup knew it wouldn't help. Much. It could still assist him, even if only a little. So he grabbed the gifts before Dagur could change his mind.

The Berserker chief waved a threatening finger, and in that moment, Hiccup saw Dagur not as some delusional man on a goose chase after him. He saw him as the frightening enemy he could be: Dagur the Deranged.

"I can't let you die, Hiccup," growled Dagur in a low voice. "Viggo and Ryker wanted to watch that pleasure... but, brother, I can make you suffer." With a cackle, he gathered his blankets and the remaining food, then stomped out of the prison. The guards soon followed, but Hiccup noticed them muttering to each other. He wondered what they were talking about.

Hiccup held his bread in his hands and took a small bite. It tasted so good that he had to visibly restrain himself from stuffing the rest down. He had to make it last. Plus, he hadn't eaten for awhile, and couldn't put too much in his stomach or it'd come right back up. He then draped the blanket around him. However, it barely gave him any warmth.

Even though Hiccup was freezing, starving, nauseous, and weak, he had these little triumphs. Pushing Dagur to his breaking point, getting food and a blanket, knowing that Toothless was still safe and not captured. So despite it all, he allowed a tiny smile to spread across his face. It was small. It was tired. It was faint.

But it was there.

Stoick felt hopeless. It was a strange sensation, one that he wasn't used to. He was the great chief of Berk, wasn't he? He was supposed to be fearless. Ferocious. Intimidating. Nothing could stand in his way. He could control anything and everything.

Everything but this.

The Riders and Stoick had been scouring the ocean for Hiccup since they had grouped up. There was no sign of the boy or his Night Fury, which didn't surprise Stoick that much. There was a colossal ocean out here, and Hiccup… well… he wasn't the biggest person. Finding him would be nearly impossible. Stoick let out a sigh.

"Chief?" said Astrid, flying up to him. She was rubbing her arms in the light rain. "It's getting darker out. The Riders… we think we should stop soon."

Stoick stiffened. "And stop looking for my son? No. I think that we should keep going. Tonight could be the night we find him. We can't stop now."

Astrid winced, seeming to expect this response. "Stoick, we've been flying all through the night… I don't know if you have noticed, but we all need rest…"

"What? No! We're all as fresh as we were when we woke up yesterday," Stoick protested.

Of course, at that moment, Snotlout let out a snore, slumped over on Hookfang. He was fast asleep. Ruff and Tuff weren't talking as much. Their chatter was more of slurred murmurs that didn't make any sense. Fishlegs and Meatlug were dipping from the clouds. Even Astrid was heavy-lidded. It appeared that only the chief of Berk had energy.

Astrid yawned. "See what I mean? We'll just stop for a couple of hours… get back up right away… it's not like we can find Hiccup in this coming darkness. Fishlegs guessed it was supposed to storm heavily later on, too, and his calculations are almost always correct."

Stoick struggled to make a comeback, but Astrid was right. They needed to rest, and even if they did somehow stumble across where Hiccup was, they wouldn't be able to see him.

"Fine," said Stoick, hating to agree. "But just for a few hours. Until the storm leaves, at least."

With a tired smile, Astrid nodded. "Thanks, Chief. And, don't worry. Hiccup is creative. Whether he's flying lost on Toothless, landed on an island, or facing a herd of angry Changewings, I bet he can make his way out of it. He's Hiccup. Just-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!

Something impossibly loud nearly shook them off their dragons, who were freaking out at the noise. Stoick's ears were ringing, but he managed to hold Skullcrusher still and look around for the source of the noise.

He didn't find that, but he did find something. Something so horribly awful, he couldn't process it.

Stoick the Vast's jaw hung open as he watched, just over the horizon, as the sky itself exploded and raged with spurting fire.

So... SKY-HANGER!

Wait. That didn't make sense. *shrugs* Who cares?

Thank you, everyone, for viewing/reviewing/liking/or following! By the way, we're at about 1700 views! That is AWESOME! Thank you! I can't even imagine a hundred people viewing my work. You guys are the best.

I think I'm going to MAYBE write a one-shot today, but I've got to do the dishes, and I'm having a sleepover tonight, so maybe not. This is kind of a mid-way chapter. I'll try and write SOMETHING tonight and maybe post it, but Saturday is alarmingly busy this week!

Alrighty, then! Five more chapters to write, Hiccup!whump to plan, Dagur to make deranged. Until Chapter 11!