"Hiccup!" Fishlegs yelled as he ran to the training arena. "Adara!"
"Woah woah, what is it Fishlegs?" Hiccup asked, letting Adara go as they turned to face the shaken up viking.
"It's Snotlout, something's wrong!"
Hiccup didn't hesitate as he grabbed Adara's hand, pulling her along as the two made their way to the Clubhouse where a very worried looking Hookfang sat outside. Toothless was right behind them, looking around worriedly as if expecting something to jump out and attack them.
He ran into the Clubhouse, both he and Adara stopping when they saw the state of Snotlout. His skin was red and covered with sweat and blisters.
"Adara." He said, not even fully getting her name out before the girl was at her side, feeling his head.
"He has a fever." She said, handing Hiccup the book Dagur gave her, which as well as listing plants that could be used as herbs also listed illnesses that could be caused by a plant or poison.
Hiccup nodded, understanding what she wanted to him to do as he began flipping through the book.
"The blisters are not infected and seem to be just full of excess water."
Once again Hiccup began flipping.
"Red skin and is sweet smelling."
Hiccup flipped yet again and frowned. "Adara, I found it." He said, causing not only her but the twins as well to look over at him. She gently took the book and began reading.
"Silver Hook Jippers. These plants are toxic to humans upon physical contact with their petals. This plant will kill any human within twenty-four hours. In the first two hours the skin will turn red and blotchy with blisters. Hours three through eight will be full of fever induced hallucinations, then hours eight through sixteen will be violent vomiting then the remaining hours of the life will be spent in a sleep-like state until they finally die. Anybody who makes it passed twenty-four hours will die before twenty-six." Adara looked at Hiccup who felt like he was going to be sick.
"Is there a cure?" Fishlegs asked.
"Um…" She read further before she nodded, "Yes! Yes here it is okay, The only cure for Silver Hook Jippers are Purple Poxie Moss. Purple Poxie Moss is…" She hesitated before reading again, a bit sadder this time, "Is extremely rare and is only found where boiling water meets frozen water and rock. If this plant is found it needs to be frozen and crushed into a powder then inhaled by the one affected by the Silver Hook Jippers before the twenty-th hour for any chance of survival."
Hiccup felt sick, sick and extremely dizzy. His cousin only had twenty-four hours to live and judging by the symptoms listed he had already been sick for at least two hours. He needed to think of something.
"Ruff, Tuff go find Astrid, she's on Patrol." He ordered and the twins saluted before running off, "Fishlegs, write the village and tell them what's going on tell Spitelout to come here just in case he doesn't make it."
"Okay." Fishlegs said, running out as well.
"Adara." Hiccup turned to his friend, "What do you think it meant 'Where boiling water meets frozen water and rock'?"
Adara thought for a moment, "I't probably talking about a place like… The hot spring!" She said, turning excitedly to Hiccup. "I remember seeing purple moss on top of the mouth of the cave near the hot spring! If that's the Purple Poxie Moss then all we have to do is go up there and get some."
"So there's a chance we can-"
"-Save him, I think so." Adara smiled, "I'll go get some." She said, grabbing her bag.
"I'm coming with you, it'll take three hours for you to get up there on foot. We'll take Toothless."
While fear sparked behind the girl's green eyes she nodded anyways, "Okay." She and Hiccup climbed on Toothless before they took off into the sky, heading towards the Hotspring, both hoping that they would be able to make it there and back without any trouble.
Astrid
Astrid looked around the island as she flew through the air, making sure to swing close to the water as well up high in the air looking all around for any signs of danger. She could see the snowstorm in the distance, the storm which Snotlout had told them was beginning to head away from them still made her a bit nervous but the longer she watched it the more it looked like it was infact going to miss them by a few miles.
"Astrid!" Tuffnut yelled, startling the blonde as she turned to face two of the other riders, who were flying full speed towards her.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Astrid asked.
"Hiccup told us to get you, Snotlout's sick."
"What?" Astrid asked curiously at Ruffnut's answer. "Poisoned by what?"
"We'll explain on the way, but we need to get back to the Edge." Ruff said, and Astrid nodded, allowing herself to be lead back to the Edge.
This can't be happening, we just got Hiccup back and now Snotlout is sick?! What in Odin's name is going on here!?
Toothless
Toothless landed on the ground, the snow crunching under his feet. He sniffed the air with a growl, there was something different about the scent of the air since yesterday but he couldn't worry about that too much. Hiccup climbed off his back helping Adara off of him and onto their feet. It was clear by the little limp Hiccup gave under his weight caught made Toothless suspect that his leg was already beginning to hurt him thanks to the cold air around him, he guessed that they only had about an hour to came what they needed before the joints in his leg completely froze up and wouldn't be able to support his weight any longer.
Toothless watched as the two humans walked over to the hotsprings, looking around for a moment before following the hot water stream that fed the spring into the cave. Toothless sniffed softly, a familiar and chilling scent filling his nose when he walked a foot in.
"Guys, we shouldn't be here. The hot spring is one thing but the cave is another thing." Toothless tried to tell the two humans, but thanks to fact that they didn't understand dragon they continued in. "Hiccup!"
"Hold on, Bud, we'll get the moss and get out of here." Hiccup said.
"I found it!" Adara said, pointing to the overhang of the cave. She then stood on her tip-toes beginning to pull the purple moss off the top of the cave. "I'm going to grab as much as I can then we'll go and figure out how we're going to get Snotlout taken care of." She promised.
"Get. Out." Growled a quiet voice that caught Toothless attention as he turned around seeing nothing but the snow and the rocks that rested outside of the cave. That was until he saw two, almost glowing, purple eyes staring at him from the snow. "You're trespassing." The female voice said, moving slightly.
Toothless growled protectively, when he saw the full shape of the dragon. It was a Woolly Howl, a dragon that lived in the snowy area's which allowed him to camouflage herself almost flawlessly. Woolly Howl's were smaller than most dragons, but was still bigger than him "Hiccup." He said again, this time the growl he caught Hiccup's attention.
"What is it, Bud?" Hiccup asked, turning and patting Toothless's neck.
Toothless sucked in a breath, shooting out a ball of energy into the snow, blasting right next to the Woolly Howl's foot. Causing it to snarl angrily.
"Adara." Hiccup said, the sound of his voice confirmed that he had seen and heard the dragon. "We need to go."
"Five more minutes. We don't know how much it'll take and I don't want to have to come back for a second trip." She mumbled, crawling deeper into the cave which seemed to upset the wild dragon even more.
"GET OUT!" She yelled, running at Hiccup and Toothless.
On instinct Toothless jumped out of the way, wrapping Hiccup in his wings as the two tumbled out of the cave. He then shot a blast of energy, not realizing exactly what he had done until Hiccup yelled, and his shot hit the side of the cave. The next seconds the followed made Hiccup shrink back with a single thought; What did I just do?!
The moment that the sot left his mouth it made contact with the rock inside of the cave. The rock, being mostly frozen shattered, causing Adara to let out a scared cry as the ceiling collapsed. The screams then went silently as he and Hiccup both sat there in shock.
"Adara!" Hiccup yelled once the shock wore off. He ran to the now sealed off entrance, digging as much of the rocks away as he could.
"I can blast it away!" Toothless said, readying another breath in order to fire.
"No Toothless!" Hiccup said, "The cave is unstable, another shot could bring the rest of it crashing down… We need help."
"Hiccup!" A scared and muffled voice came from inside the cave.
"Adara! Adara are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Hiccup! Just… Just get me out of here."
"Where is the dragon?"
"It took off when the roof collapsed, I'm all alone."
"Took off? Took off where?"
"The cave is pretty deep and goes on for a while. I'm going to try and follow it. There has to be another way out of here and I plan to find it."
"No no no, you stay put." Hiccup said.
"And what wait for you to dig me out? Snotlout doesn't have time for us to wait for that! I'll be quick and quiet and find my way out of here. Somebody should stay with Snotlout though incase I don't make it though… It'll be best if he has somebody by his side to make sure he doesn't hurt himself through the fevers."
"Okay… I'll be back and I'll try to find another way in." Hiccup said, "Okay? Toothless has Echolocation abilities and if we can find a way in we'll be able to find you using that. Adara… be safe okay?"
"I promise I'll be fine, just go!"
"Come on, Bud, you heard her." Hiccup limped over, climbing onto the back of the Nightfury. With his leg being frozen they wouldn't be able to fly so running off was their best option. "You better be alive when I get back!" He yelled, as Toothless turned then took off running down the snow covered path towards Dragon's Edge.
This is all my fault! Toothless thought, If she dies it's all my fault!