Where are the Dragons going?

"What the...?!" Stoick drifted off.

Everybody looked up to the source of that sound. There were hundreds of dragons of all sorts passing over the island, roaring out calls to the ones below. Immediately the dragons of the islands started flying up to join them, much to everyone's confusion.

"What in Thor's name?!" Gobber cried out.

Snotlout watched in shock as Hookfang soared up from the roof he was on.

"Come back!" he screamed. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back!" Hookfang roared down to him, not looking back, but his rider couldn't understand.

Fishlegs freaked out, realising Meatlug wasn't next to him anymore. "Meatlug!"

Astrid meanwhile noticed that three friends weren't there. "Where are Hester, Sigmund and Garsir?"

Back out at sea, the Trio had finished their race with their dragons, not aware of what was going back on Berk.

"Ha-ha! I told you we'd win!" Hester cheered.

"That's what comes from being the fastest dragon," a smug Toothless smiled out his toothless smile.

"Guess we'll have to clean your dragon's stable then," Sigmund replied.

"Oh no. I won't make you guys clean Toothless's stable. He doesn't even have one," Hester answered, much to their luck.

"You got that right. I sleep in your room," Toothless said.

"Now that we've finished this race, what do you guys say, we go and do some tricks?" Sigmund suggested.

"I'm up for it!" Garsir whooped. "Skullbones and I have got something to show you guys,"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Hester motivated.

But before they could fly off, they noticed a huge swarm of dragons flying over their heads.

"What the…" Hester began.

"Where did these dragons come from?" Sigmund wondered.

"And where are they off to? Hang on a minute! Aren't those some of Berk's dragons?" Garsir pointed up and his best friends recognised some dragons from Berk.

"Why are they leaving?" Hester asked.

Whilst his rider was staring up, Toothless noticed a strange look in Tifespike and Skullbones's eyes.

"What's wrong guys?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"It's time," Tifespike said.

Suddenly Skullbones and Tifespike flew over Toothless and twisted their heads, their riders slipped off and they landed on Toothless's back.

"Tifespike! What was that for?!" Sigmund called up.

"What's up boy?!" Garsir demanded.

"We'll be back!" Tifespike shouted down to them.

"We need to go with them just for the winter," Skullbones roared.

They turned and started flying off.

"Where are you guys going?" Sigmund shouted.

"Come back!" Garsir begged. "But they wouldn't come back!"

Suddenly they were surrounded by dragons zooming past them. Toothless moved left and right and up and down to avoid them, shouting out: "Watch where you're going?"

Suddenly a dragon whizzed past and Hester's helmet was knocked off.

"Aaaaahhh! Oh, no! My helmet!" Hester screamed. She couldn't lose it. This was made from her mother's breastplate.

Toothless dove down after it. But the flock of dragons flying over and under them made it impossible to do a super-fast dive without hitting someone. It was too late. Hester pulled Toothless by the saddle straps. "Wait! Toothless! Stop!"

Toothless stopped before he could dive into the water.

"We'll get it later, bud. We need to get back and find out what's going on,"

A reluctant Toothless started flying back in the direction towards Berk.

"But what about your helmet?" Sigmund asked.

"We'll come back for it," Hester told him. "Right now, I'm more concerned about Berk's dragons,"

"Why would they just leave like that?" Garsir asked, disheartened by Skullbones leaving him and dropping onto Toothless like that.

The Vikings in the village watched helplessly as all their dragons took off without question. They circled out to them, begging them to come back.

"What's the matter?" Tuffnut wailed out to Belch.

"Where are you going?" Ruffnut screamed to Barf. "Haven't we been good for you?"

Their shared Zippleback didn't turn back to respond. What difference would it make? They wouldn't be able to understand them.

Astrid freaked out when she noticed Stormfly unravelling her wings. "Nonono! Don't leave, Stormfly, don't go! Please?" But Stormfly took off.

The Trio on Toothless arrived on the island and on the cliff just out of the village.

"Astrid!" The Trio screamed out.

"Guys! What's going on? Where are they going?" Astrid begged for an answer.

Suddenly dozens of Vikings surrounded the Trio, blurting out questions.

"Why did they leave?"

"What's happening?"

"Will they ever come back?"

"Stop! Wait!" Hester pleaded. But nobody listened.

"Guys! You're overcrowding them!" Astrid tried to calm them down, seeing how her friends were under pressure from their continuous wave of urging questions.

"Calm down! Give them some space! You're squeezing them up!" he pushed everyone away from his daughter. "Hester, where are all our dragons going?"

"Dad... I don't know," Hester admitted. "They could be going anywhere,"

She heard roaring behind her and saw that Stormfly was hovering above Toothless, trying to convince him to come.

"Come with us!" Stormfly pleaded.

"I can't! I can't fly without Hester!" Toothless answered. "I can't leave her either! I have to stay here!"

"Okay! We'll be back soon!" Stormfly promised. She turned and flew after the others. The herd of flying dragons disappeared into the distance.

That night everyone gathered in the great hall. Waves of groans and moans filled the hall as everyone was shocked by the thought of their dragons leaving them behind.

"Where'd they go?!" One demanded.

"Snoggletog is ruined!" bellowed another.

Stoick could not stand the rioting; he was not going to let it ruin the holidays. "It's not ruined!" he bellowed. "We're Vikings! We've been perfectly happy celebrating without dragons for generations! And there's no reason we can't do it again! Now we don't know where they've gone off to. But we have to have faith that they'll be back again soon. Am I right?"

None of his words seemed to make anyone feel better. If anything, it made them feel worse.

"You're right, we are Vikings! We are tough!" Gobber chanted, ringing his shiny bells and baubles attached to his arm and helmet.

Only Garsir seemed to enjoy it a bit.

"Most of the time..." Gobber said awkwardly. "Let's sing some Snoggletog songs!"

His songs brought no happiness to the hall. It brought complains instead. Everyone retreated out right away.

"That was depressing..." Ruffnut complained with remorse.

"I know," Astrid lamented sadly. "I was looking forward to spending the holiday with Stormfly,"

Garsir consoled her sadness with a hand on her shoulder. His comfort made her smile a little.

"I was looking forward to giving Tifespike and her pack all that lovely fish I caught," Sigmund lamented. "It's such a waste now," As he hung his head down, his eye drums started ringing to the whistling of his brother walking next to him.

"What are you so happy about?" he asked. "Don't you miss Meatlug?"

"Yeah. Cause that looks like you're happy," Tuffnut agreed.

"Me?" Fishlegs blurted out. "I'm offended! How can you say? I'm going off to my house.

Well, good night!" he skittered off at a quick pace. Sigmund narrowed his eyes.

"I think he's hiding something," he whispered to Garsir.

"He seems too happy," Garsir agreed.

Astrid suddenly sparked up an idea. "I've got an idea! Let's come up with a bunch of new holiday traditions! You know, to bury the sadness!"

Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout groaned; they hated her ideas.

"Actually, Astrid might be on to something," Hester agreed, supporting her.

"You guys don't want to spend the holidays all upset, do you?" Garsir challenged, trying to give them a reason to support Astrid's idea. "Let's just at least give it a try,"

"It's just nice how you're happy," Tuffnut said in a grumpy mood. Your dragon can't go anywhere without you so you're not goanna have an unhappy Snoggletog like us,"

Hester looked to the cliffs and saw Toothless staring hardly out at sea. She could see in his eyes that he sought freedom in the sky.

"Must be nice," Ruffnut groaned, complaining like Hester was the lucky one.

"Guys…" Garsir warned.

"What?" Tuffnut asked pointlessly.

"Don't even think about it," Sigmund ordered.

"I don't know what he's talking about," Ruffnut whispered to her brother. "Do you?"

"No. I don't," Tuffnut stupidly answered.

"Let's just go to bed," Snotlout complained out, yawning.

Everyone except Hester, Sigmund, Garsir and Astrid stayed where they were.

"Hester…don't let what they said get to you. They're just upset because they miss their dragons," Astrid consoled. "Don't feel sad,"

"That doesn't excuse the fact that I shot him down and made him flightless," Hester lamented.

"Just forget about it," Sigmund tried to calm her down. "You know Toothless doesn't hold a grudge against you at all for it,"

"I think we should get to bed," Garsir yawned, stretching out his arms. "We'll try out some new ideas in the morning,"

"Night guys," Astrid walked off to her house.

The boys noticed that Hester was still looking at Toothless in a guilty manner.

"Hey. It'll be okay Hester," Sigmund said. "Some sleep will do some good. Night guys,"

"Night boys," Hester walked off.

The boys went back to their houses and went to sleep.

Hester couldn't sleep well that night. She eyed Toothless sleeping on his large stone slab in her room as she lay on the pillow.

He couldn't stay here on Berk. Not whilst the other dragons weren't out there. It just wasn't fair. He couldn't go anywhere. Not without her. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. She threw off the blanket and dashed out the door, making sure she didn't wake up her dad or Toothless.