Thanks for the reviews, follows and favs! This chapter isn't as long as I would like, but the past few days have been busy, and so I thought I'd update this for you instead of holding on to it. It's pretty much complete the way it is anyway.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Thunder crashed all around the building, but Hiccup didn't pay it any attention. It didn't matter that he had spent hours of the day trying to find more food for the villagers, or trying to convince them all that Mildew's cabbages were in fact edible. It didn't matter that he had to physically help his father rebuild a few of the fortifications, or that Stoick thought it would be a simple idea to ask his son to raise Dagur's flagship out of the lagoon. Right now, Hiccup was determined, he was focused, he was-

"What are you doing?"

"Astrid!" Hiccup responded, hastily closing the book in front of him, "J-just reading."

"Hiccup, it's late," Astrid said, walking around one of the tables that filled the great hall, "And don't pretend that you aren't tired."

"I know," Hiccup said, standing up. "But this was the only time I had to read."

He glanced over to his right to find that Toothless was curled up, sound asleep. Hiccup would have woken him up to greet Astrid, but Toothless had brought the bellastone with him and was currently sleeping with it in his mouth. For whatever reason, the dragon loved that thing. He had been guarding it all day. Unfortunately, Hiccup had no desire whatsoever to go near it unnecessarily. So waking the sleeping dragon was currently not on his agenda.

"That bad, huh?" Astrid commented, "Hiccup, go home. We've all had a long day, what with the battle and all. And we have no idea if Dagur will be able to regroup and attack us again as soon as tomorrow. There's really no reason for you to be reading about-" she grabbed the book from behind Hiccup and stared at the title.

"-the tides and their effects," Astrid read, "Hiccup, why are you reading this?"

"Um, you never know," he responded, "It could come in handy some day."

"Well Hiccup, that's great...and...all, but I think it's time you got to bed. Toothless!"

The dragon perked up instantly, albeit drowsily.

"Hiccup here needs to get to sleep," Astrid said, "Make sure he gets there, alright?"

Toothless nodded and stretched just as Astrid left the Great Hall. As soon as she opened the door, the wind and rain from outside rushed into the building. With a small shiver, the girl bravely stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

"Maybe we should wait until the storm passes," Hiccup confided to Toothless, "I'm not sure how much it would affect the Poison if I caught a cold out there."

Toothless sniffed in agreement, and curled back into his position on the floor.

"I should probably use the extra time to do more research," Hiccup said, placing the book on tides back onto the table, "After all, since it's probably past midnight already, that makes this the fourth day since Dagur poisoned me. I only have until tomorrow to find the antidote."

Toothless stood up and walked over to Hiccup, sliding the book out of his hands with one movement of his head.

"Toothless!" Hiccup sighed, grabbing the book and pulling it back towards him, "Alright. So this probably isn't the best place to look for clues. But I've already looked through every book on Poisons that Berk has to offer. Where else am I going to find out how to find the antidote?"

Toothless shook his head, as if telling Hiccup to drop the matter for now.

"Wait a second," Hiccup said, sitting up straighter, "What if I look on another island for clues? Maybe...maybe the Berserker island! They might have something! Then again, Dagur probably got rid of all traces of the Poison, just like how he burned that old page about it after he showed it to me. But I guess it can't hurt. If I can leave Berk, that is. The problem is that they need me here too much for me to leave."

Hiccup tapped his chin in thought, and the dragon next to him took the time Hiccup was distracted to shove his head at the book again, sliding in to the other end of the table.

"Alright, alright! I get it!" Hiccup sighed, "I'll come back to this in the morning. I mean, clearly the books on Berk are a dead end."

The boy turned towards the dragon.

"So, ready to brave the storm?" He asked, "It sounds like it's gotten a little less wild."

A very loud peal of thunder punctuated that remark.

Toothless shook his head, and re-curled himself back on the ground. Looking up at Hiccup expectantly, he raised his wings into the air.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"Fine," he said, getting down on his hands and knees and crawling under the dragon's wings, "But you'd better not drop that stone on me while I'm sleeping."

Toothless rolled his eyes, and as soon as he felt that Hiccup was comfortably settled against him, curled his wings around them both.

They fell asleep to the lullaby of the storm.


When Hiccup woke up the next morning, the first thing he registered was pain. Tremendous, searing pain. Maybe it was the fact that he had been fighting a battle yesterday, and his adrenaline had been running every second during the battle and after it, but he didn't seem to remember the Poison affecting him as badly the day before as it was doing now.

"Day four," he reminded himself, "It'll do that to you."

The next thing he registered was that he was sleeping against Toothless, covering him with his wing.

And then, to Hiccup's infinite surprise, Toothless turned into a giant black yak.

Hiccup gasped out in shock, and tried to get away from the yak. But the yak was tricky, and had thrown a net over him. Just as Hiccup was starting to worry about how he was going to escape, Astrid arrived behind him to help him out. But now the yak attempted to serenade Astrid. With a sword.

"What is going ON here!" Hiccup shouted, finally managing to escape the net that the yak had thrown over him, "Get away from me!"

Suddenly the yak turned back into Toothless, who was staring at Hiccup in confusion. Hiccup realized that they were both still in the great hall. Alone. Astrid was nowhere in sight.

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked, finally realizing that what was in his left hand wasn't a net but in fact Toothless' wing, "What just happened? Where's the yak?"

The dragon heaved out a heavy sigh, and carefully placed the bellastone on the ground. This left his mouth free for licking Hiccup, and with one wing he pulled the boy closer to do just that.

"Oh Toothless, I'm so sorry," Hiccup said, trying to avoid the licking tongue, "I-I think that the hallucinations are back. But Toothless, that was...too realistic. Not like the other hallucinations. It was-well, I thought it was actually happening."

Toothless only purred in response, easily giving the boy his forgiveness.

"Toothless," Hiccup said, "What am I going to do?"

The dragon stood up, and pushed the boy towards the saddle.

"Alright," Hiccup said, after taking a few minutes to get on, "now what?"

Toothless picked up bellastone with his mouth again and the took off across the great hall, exiting the building after an impressive trick with his tail opened the door. He was careful not to jostle his rider too much as he stepped out into the sunlight and walked across the ground.

"Toothless, stop!" Hiccup shouted, grabbing the dragon by the neck, "You're going to crush the sandcastles. The starfish will lose all their homes!"

Toothless stopped, only to observe that there were no sandcastles in the immediate area. In fact, there wasn't even sand. It was all grass. So with what sounded suspiciously like a sigh, the dragon started up again, ignoring the pleas of his rider. Toothless began to cantor, and then broke into a gallop, until finally he was able to jump and glide through the large window into Hiccup's bedroom. Not bothering to check whether Hiccup was still on his back-since the constant pressure on his neck told him enough to know that he was-Toothless walked to his stone bed and dropped the stone into its protective pile of moss and twigs for safekeeping.

"Oh my gosh," Hiccup said, finally snapping out of it, "Toothless, I can't believe it! That just happened again!"

Toothless looked at the second pile, the one next to the pile that safely held the stone. It was filled with moss, twigs, berries and who knows what other plants. Toothless took a deep breath, and blew out a small fireball onto the pile.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup asked, still on the dragon's back.

Toothless only poured some more fire onto the pile, until it was good and burned. That answer, or lack thereof, apparently seemed to satisfy Hiccup, who was currently concerned with other matters.

"How am I going to hide this from the rest of the village?" Hiccup asked, "They're going to notice soon. Do you have any more of that plant that stops hallucinations?"

Toothless apparently ignored him, because he was now busy eating the burned up mesh that had once been a pile of miscellaneous plants.

"Dragons," Hiccup smiled, leaning his head against Toothless' neck, "How can you stand that stuff? It smells terrible. Maybe I can get Astrid to find me the plant again. Just to get through today."

Toothless continued eating, although from his slow pace and constant gagging he apparently didn't like the stuff much.

"If you don't like it then stop eating," Hiccup commented, "I need to look like I'm doing something, so that the village doesn't notice these episodes. Maybe I can convince Dad to let me patrol off the island for a while. That'll give us the excuse we need to fly to Dagur's island..."

Hiccup paused for a moment, then sighed.

"We're waiting on Dagur," he said to Toothless, "It's his move now, since we don't know where he is. But maybe," Hiccup's eyes sparkled with a new idea, "Maybe we can trick him into making his move. If we can end the war before tomorrow night, then I'll know that Berk will be safe. And maybe Dagur can give me an idea of how to find the people in the world who still have the antidote. As long as I take it in time, I should be alright. Hah! Hear that Toothless? This could work!"

The dragon grumbled in response, and continued eating.

"So," Hiccup said, "Let me think. What is the best way to trick Dagur into coming right back here to Berk as soon as possible?"

As he thought about it, and as Toothless continued to eat, a smile grew on Hiccup's face. And it only grew wider the longer he thought.