A/N: Just keep guessing. All the answers will soon be revealed! In the next chapter. Warning: possibly my shortest chapter ever in this story. Possibly.

Time's Running Out

Chapter 11

Going Home... Maybe

4:45 pm

Hiccup hadn't had an asthma attack yet, but he could feel one coming on. Just a few months ago, he had developed asthma. Back then, it had been really unstable, always going off randomly and never letting him run or fly up high on Toothless. It was his unstable asthma that caused Toothless to get distracted during the dragon fight with the Dagger Claw. Using Toothless's distraction, the Dagger Claw had knocked Toothless away and attacked Hiccup, tearing out his rib.

Now that his asthma had stabilized, it only acted up when called for. In fact, Hiccup was surprised that he didn't have an asthma attack this morning when he opened the door. Cold air tends to do that.

Now, Hiccup was restless. Toothless hadn't sent a message in a while, but he knew that Hiccup was at this hotspot. However, Hiccup decided to start making his way back to the village.

Hiccup gathered up his stuff, took the dagger out of his basket and put it on his belt, and went over to the Monstrous Nightmare.

"Um, if Toothless comes by here, can you tell him that I went back to the village," asked Hiccup.

"You're leaving? Well, I'll tell Toothless what you said. Stay safe, Snakebait."

Drift looked over too. "If you happen to know anyone looking for a dragon-"

Hiccup nodded. "I know."

"Stay safe little one," said Luna. Then she added jokingly: "And watch out for those Night Furies. They can be a pain."

For the first time since the attack, Hiccup laughed. And with final goodbyes, he set off.

The first thing Hiccup noticed was just how dark and creepy it was under the tree canopy. The light was now dying faster than Hiccup, and in less than an hour, it would get pretty dark. And dangerous. The wild forests of Berk was not a place one wanted to be at night.

Hiccup gulped, and started breathing a bit harder. He had been walking for about 5 minutes now, so he wondered why he was having such a hard time breathing... unless...

Hiccup's asthma attacked. The warning had not prepared him for what felt like total suffocation. It was so intense and severe that Hiccup collapsed to the ground, curling up in the fetal position as he gasped for air.

Finally, after a few minutes of suffering in silence, Hiccup could finally feel his airway start to open back up again. Shuddering, Hiccup lay on the ground for a little while longer, enjoying the feeling of breathing, before cautiously standing again.

He grabbed onto a tree and allowed his thin blood to flow back to his head. After catching his breath again, he stumbled for another 30 seconds before another asthma attack hit. This one was much worse than the first one, mainly because he collapsed into a snowdrift. The asthma was severely intensified by the cold.

Hiccup painstakingly dragged himself out of the snowdrift and shakily settled himself between the roots of two large trees. He tried to get warm to lessen the severity of the attack.

The second attack took twice as long to die out as the first one. One thing was for sure: this would be a long trip.

A/N: IMPORTANT MESSAGE! In the next chapter, you find out what the dark blue creature with the yellow eyes is! Guarantee: you will NOT have seen that one coming (unless you guessed it)! If you still want to guess what the creature is, then REVIEW BEFORE YOU READ THE NEXT CHAPTER! Also, hidden in the chapter above is a clue to what the creature is. If you're wondering, Hiccup has seen the creature before, in his nightmares. Some might say that nightmares are... prophetic...