Chapter 12


Hiccup packed a few more things he thought might be useful, and tried to think positively. Keila was a great swimmer, and had jumped from the cliffs into the water before. But, then all those times she had done it on purpose, and didn't have a dragon falling on top of her, no he had to stop that.

Toothless crooned as Hiccup walked back and forth. Hiccup absent-mindedly pat the dragon on the nose. Something about what Astrid had said had given him new incentive to look one more time.

"There's no way she could've survived, is there...but what if?" Hiccup muttered under his breath. Toothless moaned at him again. "In a minute bud."

Hiccup dug through his things looking for his extra spyglass. Usually it only took a little more than a day for things to wash up on the shore. Hiccup had witnessed a few drownings in his life, vikings falling off the cliffs during dragon attacks or after a particularly rowdy celebration. They usually washed up the next day or so. They'd been patrolling the beaches constantly and had not found anything except bits of the tree that fell with Keila. Toothless chirped softly, Hiccup finally looked over at his dragon.

He had his head on Hiccup's bed and was nuzzling a tawny satchel imprinted with a red dragon, it was Keila's. Hiccup sat on the bed and took the bag next to Toothless, "Don't worry bud, we will find her...one way or..." He couldn't finish.

He flipped open the bag there wasn't much inside, a small journal, a few pieces of charcoal, a small knife, and a bunch of letters tied together. He started to put everything back when he noticed his name on one of the letters. The letters were from him, or at least some of them. He had written her a few letters when they were apart, mail sometimes took a long time to get to it's destination, but they had written back and forth since they were six. Originally they were just pictures, but eventually they wrote long letters to each other.

She had kept them all. Hiccup's brow creased and and stuffed the things back into his cousin's bag. He grabbed his own bag and stormed towards the door, "Let's go bud."


Keila curled up into the dragon's side, sleeping. His body heat kept her warm enough and even he draped his wing over her.

Despite the dragon's attitude towards her originally, he seemed to have decided to accept her presence. He caught a few fish for her to eat, and helped her get around in the dark. Overall he treated her with disdain, like she was a hatchling he couldn't believe he had to look after.

She wondered why he didn't just leave, he seemed able to swim, and she doubted they were too far under the surface of the water. The dragon was probably trying to go up for air when he dragged her into the cave, she figured he had been disoriented and only accidentally ended up in this cave.

Now she had passed out from exhaustion at the dragon's side. Her injuries were tender, but she'd done pretty much all she could to take care of them. The bandage on her head was already soaked through, but she couldn't keep ripping her clothes.

She shuddered as a nightmare filled her head. She cringed into the dragons side, and scream out suddenly as she was scared awake. She sat staring into the black of the cave with wide eyes breathing hard. She dragon shifted next to her, she could feel his eyes on her.

He grumbled softly, like he was asking her to quiet down. She looked around in the cave and groaned, she was sick of darkness. She pushed herself up slowly and walked towards the sound of the water, trying not to trip. She looked over her shoulder in the dragon's direction, "Can't you light a fire or something?"

The dragon growled, as if she was stupid for asking.

She heard him inhale and she thought she heard him take a shot, but she barely saw a small light in the corner of her eye that quickly went out. Her eyes didn't even adjust enough for her to see anything at all. "What, no fire power?"

The dragon groaned at her, and she mimicked him, snickering. It had to be too wet for the fire to stay lit, and there wasn't anything for it to catch on. She sighed trying not to let herself get frantic. She kicked her foot in the water.

"Alright pal, it's time for us to get out of here, I'm sick and tired of being in the dark."


Hiccup took a deep breath and tied a rope to the tree stump at the cliff's edge and looked over. The water beat against the cliffside with great force. The hopeless feeling started to creep up on him again.

"And just what are you expecting to do with that?"

Hiccup jumped at Astrid's voice. She landed next to Toothless and looked at him carefully. He looked at the rope in his hands and the other random items he had spread out around him. He looked around trying to formulate an explanation of his plan to save his cousin.

"Uh...honestly? I have no idea..." I said softly.

Astrid dismounted and walked up to him. "I flew around to the beaches no one has seen any-"

"Good, that's good." Hiccup said softly, not really listening, all he knew was that if they hadn't found anything, there was still a chance, however slim.

He tightened his knots and knelt to arrange the things at his feet.

"What's all this for?" Snotlout appeared behind Hiccup kicking at some of the supplies. The others and their dragons were all behind him. Anger filled him at the sight of Snotlout and the twins, if it weren't for them... He grit his teeth, and pushed those thoughts down, it wasn't going to be helping anyone if he was thinking that way.

"We are going to find her."

They all stared at him, some with looks that questioned his sanity, and some like Astrid who was just happy that he hadn't given up. She knew the odds, hell, they all did, but the Hiccup she knew wasn't one to give up. He was so stubborn, never letting others tell him what to do, seeing him that way, broken and silent, it just wasn't Hiccup. At least now, he was a shadow of himself.

"Uh...Hiccup...I do-" Fishlegs started to express his doubts, but Astrid stopped him with a grunt.

"What do we do?" Astrid said.


Keila's heart still fluttered frantically in the presence of the dragon, but she had had to push her fear down before, and she figured the dragon would have killed her already if he was going to.

What had Hiccup said? She tried to remember. Trust was the key, they needed to trust each other. Well, that wasn't exactly an option, she didn't trust any dragon, and this dragon didn't seem care about her either way, but was that true? The dragon had cared enough that it saved her when they fell into the water, and she had trusted it thus far, at least in the since that she decided she needed it to survive down here.

She looked toward the dragon. She could feel his warmth, and his breath as he exhaled."If we are both going to get out of here, we are going to have to work together. "

The dragon snorted in response.

"What...oh, ok yeah you are going to have to do most of the work at first, because I have no idea how to get out of here, and swimming isn't exactly the easiest thing with one arm."

The dragon groaned.

"I will help as soon as we are out of the water I promise."

The dragon blew air at her like he didn't believe that.

"You get me out of this and I will get you more fish than you can eat, now come on!" Keila made a quick move in the dragon's direction.

The dragon growled at her and she could feel him recoil quickly; she gasped and jumped back, prepared to defend herself.

She tried to calm herself down and think. The darkness was killing her, she had to get out, even if that meant trusting a dragon. She thought back to Hiccup's lessons, she'd hardly paid attention. She didn't listen, because she didn't want to hear what he had to say, she didn't trust dragons and nothing he said was going to change that. Even Toothless she didn't totally trust, whenever he was around her she kept a hand on her dagger, just in case. She had gotten to the point where she didn't scream every time a dragon came near her, but she never truly believed she would be able to bond with one like the others.

What had he said? Trust, something about trust, and no eels, and...and what? Her head pounded as she tried to remember. She flashed back to her first flight on Toothless, when they had landed Hiccup made her touch Toothless on the snout. When they talked about it Hiccup had told her that they key to approaching a strange dragon was being slow and careful.

She inhaled and tried hard to relax. She turned away from the dragon, closed her eyes, put her good hand out into the black void of the cave. She waited and waited, and she was going to give up when scales rubbed up against her palm.

Triumph and excitement welled up inside of her.

She kept her hand lightly on the dragon's snout and swept her hand over his head to find a good spot on his back. The dragon had two foot long horns on his head and behind that along his spine spikes started to rise up. Just before his wings the spikes were low enough she could sit comfortably.

She fumbled in trying to climb on the dragon's back. The dragon turned his head and used his nose to steady her and push her into position. "Uh, thanks..." Keila inhaled sharply as she realized she was actually sitting on a dragon on her own.

She pet his scales and nudged him toward the sound of the water, "Ok we are getting out of here...better hold your breath."


"Alright, hover there Fishlegs, we are almost ready! Astrid, make sure you have enough slack in your rope and get ready to dive!" Hiccup called out instructions to everyone.

The plan was half-baked at best, but he figured they would at least be able to determine if there was some way for Keila was alive, and hopefully figure out a way to rescue her. Hiccup looked around at his friends, thankful that he didn't have to do this alone.

Even the twins and Snotlout, who were uncharacteristically quiet, were working their hardest to help with the rescue mission. Hiccup was adjusting Toothless's saddle when a gruff voice startled him out of his concentration.

"Son..."

"Dad! What...what do you need?"

Stoick looked around at everything that was going on and sighed heavily, "Hiccup...son..."

"Dad I know what you're going to say, and...I just-"

"Son, I'm sorry, but Keila is-"

"Dad, I'm not giving up, not until I know."

Stoick sighed and Hiccup just thought he looked beaten and tired. He stepped to the tree stump and looked out like he was just in need of a reprieve.

"Hiccup, we need to be restocking the storehouses we lost, a storm is coming and most of the villages provisions were taken out...we have to think of the village. And we've got to put her to rest."

Hiccup pulled on one last strap and mounted Toothless. His father was stating the obvious, this time of year they always had bad storms, but he was right about the storehouses.

"Not yet, I've got to try..."

Stoick groaned and turned away from the cliff's edge. Suddenly he pulled a small dagger from his belt and stabbed it into the wood and stormed off. Hiccup watched him storm away in surprise. He dismounted Toothless and walked over to the stump, "What in Thor's..." Hiccup slowly pulled the dagger up. At first it looked like any other dagger, but up close he realized it belonged to Keila. Hiccup gripped the knife tightly, and went back to Toothless.

This doesn't mean anything, it doesn't. He told himself. He turned back to his friends, and nudged Toothless to the edge of the cliff.

"Get ready, Astrid dive!"

"Wait! Look!"

The water was stirring, like something was trying to surface. Suddenly a dark red dragon burst out of the water and tried to fly out, but something was wrong and it couldn't get in the air. Something was weird about this dragon, and it's roar was familiar. Something...no, someone was draped across the dragon's back. It was Keila, he knew it.

Hiccup burst into action, before anyone else could register what was going on. He sent Toothless into a breakneck dive.

The dragon was thrashing and panicking, if Hiccup didn't hurry Keila would definitely be killed, if she wasn't dead already. Hiccup's dive was too steep, he didn't care.

"Hiccup!" He heard Astrid scream. He stayed in the dive until he was close enough, and pulled up slightly just before the water and reached out as far as he could. He grabbed a bunch of fabric from what was left of her shirt in his hand and held on as tight as he could. The dragon's thrashing wing clipped Toothless and and the Night Fury was thrown off kilter as they tried to pull out, Hiccup held tight to Keila as Toothless tried to get them stable again.


Finally Toothless was able pull up. Hiccup tugged Keila up so that she was sitting in front of him and leaning against him. She was waterlogged, and barely conscious. He called out to her, "Keila! Keil speak to me come on!"

It didn't feel like she was breathing. He landed hastily and his friends followed suit. He laid Keila on the ground and tried to find a way to help her. She looked like she was struggling.

Hiccup felt helpless he didn't know what to do as she strained for air, finally she sputtered and coughed and a spout of water exhumed itself from her lungs.

"Keila!"

"The...dr-dragon..." She gasped and then fell unconscious. Hiccup could hardly believe he was seeing his cousin alive, he looked at his friends.

"Get him."

They all took off except Snotlout, he looked on nervously, "Is she...?"

"Go get the dragon," Hiccup said softly. He hugged Keila, and didn't even notice as the villagers started to gather. He honestly hadn't believed he would see her again.

"You're okay."


Thanks so much for reading, and I'm glad everyone seems to enjoy my story. It's not over yet! Please R&R, I love hearing from you guys. In the next chapters you'll find out more about what actually happened to Keila in the cave, and learn the name of her dragon! Thanks again for reading!