Toothless knew what it felt like to be truly helpless, unable to so much as twitch under his own will. His current situation wasn't exactly that, but it felt far too similar for his comfort. He could move, nothing was controlling his mind… but nothing he did would set him free, not without also dooming him in some way.

The massive talons clutching him were strong, and biting them wouldn't cause any real damage, but he could try squirming out. The Skrill carrying him was not invincible, nothing was stopping him from doing his best to open it from chest to tail with his claws. Nothing except that it probably wouldn't work, getting him shocked and possibly dropped, and if it did work, he was still out over an endless ocean with no allies and nothing to stop him from drowning with the body of his captor.

Plans that ended in his own death weren't acceptable, he didn't need Maour to tell him that. That would be letting the Skrill win, his own inherent sense of self-preservation aside. Just because these weren't willing to kill him didn't mean their desires were any different. Dying would be giving them what they hoped for.

He sighed, quietly so as to not be heard by his captor, and closed his eyes, turning the problem over in his mind, seeking new ways to approach it. There had to be some way to turn two grounded Night Furies being carried to destinations unknown by two large Skrill into a successful escape. He just couldn't see it, despite entire days dedicated to thinking about it.

Each day began with the Skrill throwing fish at him and Einn, and snatching them up the moment they finished eating. Being picked up was always accompanied by a shock, just to ensure he didn't struggle, and the Skrill were more than capable of shrugging off a blast they were expecting, so he had no chance of shooting them out of the sky then.

After that, the day would go by, painfully slow and boring. No speaking was allowed, and nothing Toothless could think of would elicit anything from his captors but a shock. The way he was being held, he couldn't fire on either of the Skrill, and even if he could, it wouldn't do any good.

The evening, or sometimes the middle of the night if the Skrill were feeling competitive, when they were focused on one-upping one another was the best time for him to try something, but that only meant it was slightly less hopeless than any other time. The Skrill were careful to always put him and Einn somewhere they could never leave on their own, and to sleep somewhere sufficiently far away that they couldn't be killed or knocked off with a blast.

Night was a chance to talk freely to Maour, and to Einn for that matter, but neither was very useful. Einn refused to respond, acting as if he was asleep with his eyes open, and Maour wasn't present and thus couldn't actually do anything to help except talk, which he did enough of in the day.

In order to do something to the Skrill, Toothless would need to miraculously regrow his tailfin, or somehow heal Einn's wings and utter apathy. Even then, he didn't think it would be enough; he suspected the Skrill slept in shifts. It was what he would have done, just to be safe. There were other dragons in the world aside from the four of them, though they'd chanced across none aside from the single Nadder family right at the start of the chase.

He sighed to himself, once again coming to the conclusion that the Skrill had thought of everything. It wasn't hard, when his options were so limited. There were no outside factors so far, nothing new he could take advantage of. The only advantage he had was currently at least a day behind, trying her best but just not capable of keeping up.

A quick check to his brother's senses confirmed that Maour was still asleep, his vision an all-encompassing blackness that was only reassuring because being able to access it at all meant he was still alive. Unable to talk at the moment, but alive and well.

'Wake yours,' Einn's captor said loudly.

Toothless immediately opened his eyes and squirmed in the grip of his captor, ensuring that the Skrill knew a shock wouldn't be necessary. The one small mercy of this whole, miserable trip was that he was being carried by the less bloodthirsty Skrill. So long as he did as told, he could avoid being shocked altogether, aside from the apparently unconscious little jolts that ran down the Skrill's talons on occasion.

'Sleeping?' his captor asked neutrally.

'Closed eyes,' the other Skrill growled. 'I don't have that problem with mine.'

'Yours barely lives,' the younger Skrill growled. 'That is like bragging that your fish does not flop because it is dead.'

'Dead is better,' the older Skrill said confidently.

Toothless worried that Einn might be in agreement with that statement; he certainly hadn't made any attempt to escape, or kill his captors, or anything aside from the bare minimums needed to continue existing. They had been captives together for days - he didn't remember the exact number, more than ten as that was where he had stopped counting - and yet hadn't exchanged so much as a meaningful look, let alone words or anything passing for communication.

'For them, not for us,' his captor - they had never used names for each other, so Toothless didn't even know if they had any - said. 'I see an island up ahead. Stop or keep going?'

'Keep going,' the older Skrill said dismissively. 'It is not even fully dark yet. I want to fly until midnight.'

'Done,' the younger agreed. Toothless would have slumped, were he not already as limp as he could get. The Skrill had proven, over and over again in this long pursuit, that they could match or even exceed Von's speed. What was worse, they had a habit of one-upping each other when it came to endurance, and every time one of them pushed to keep going like had just happened, Von and the others lost ground.

If something was going to be done, it would be up to him to make it happen.

O-O-O

"They're both flightless," Ruffnut reasoned, drawing her words out to waste time. "If we attack while the Skrill are carrying them, the Skrill will just drop them and we lose no matter what else happens."

'I know that,' Von grumbled. 'I was not proposing we attack in the middle of nowhere.'

"No, but you were thinking it," Ruffnut said confidently, though she didn't actually believe Von was contemplating such a stupid move. Von was no Myrkur, the tricky side of her mind - Tuffnut insisted the mind had sides for some incomprehensible reason, she missed Tuffnut enough to agree with him - was rusted and dusty.

Ruffnut, lacking anything else to do, had decided she was going to knock Von into shape with words alone. "But have you thought about what else that means?"

'It means we cannot attack while they are carrying my brother and Einn,' Von huffed. 'What else could it possibly mean?'

"Think about it," Ruffnut said, leaning back to stare at the boring, cloudy sky. Von wasn't even adventurous enough to fly above the clouds, despite having Maour to tell her if she overshot or otherwise lost her way. It wasn't like they were close enough to catch up at a moment's notice, anyway. "What else could it mean? What is wrong with that thinking?"

A long moment of silence, maybe twenty beats of Von's wings, passed between them. Maour was asleep in the saddle right in front of Ruffnut, so she wasn't surprised he wasn't answering her challenge, but she had expected Von to get it quickly enough.

'I don't get it,' Von finally said.

"Ugh, okay, fine," Ruffnut groaned, resisting the urge to stick her hands behind her and lean back. Von didn't like that, and antagonizing her only conversational partner didn't seem like a fun idea. "Do you want me to spell it out for you?"

'Yes, do that,' Von growled. 'So you can prove you are not just asking vague questions and then claiming whatever I think of as your original idea.'

"That only works on someone who thinks I know what I'm talking about," Ruffnut said dismissively. "Okay, think like a trickster."

'I am obnoxious, dreaded by all who like peace and quiet, and I have an irrational urge to seek out a like-minded sibling,' Von drawled.

"Yes, but not that," Ruffnut chided, a smile crossing her face. She would rather have Von sniping at her than whining; she was going through a low-stakes conflict withdrawal. That was how Boom would have put it if she was trying to mock Berg, anyway…

'Explain,' Von demanded.

"This is like trying to steal from someone you don't know when you want to annoy them, not actually profit off of it," Ruffnut elaborated, sensing that she was pushing Von's patience a bit too far. "You have to know what they value, and what they'll happily drop if it means catching you faster. One way to figure that out is to watch how they handle what they're carrying."

'And in this case, we are looking at how the Skrill carry my brother?' Von asked. Ruffnut could all but hear the tentative hope in her voice; she really needed to work on hiding her emotions better. Anyone looking to lead her on could easily find out where to push and pull.

"Yes, exactly," Ruffnut said. "Skrill are destructive marks, they don't really keep things. We know they should have gutted Einn weeks ago." She left Toothless out of it for Von's sake, and for her own; Maour was a little too vehement in keeping Von's spirits up. He probably would have cut this conversation off by now if he was awake.

'And since they have not…' Von trailed off.

"That means they value Toothless and Einn," Ruffnut said. "Meaning they wouldn't drop them at the first sign of trouble. Attacking with nowhere safe to leave them might work."

'I am not even going to ask why you spent so long beating around the bush about that,' Von groaned. 'I see your point, but I do not agree. Just because they have not killed yet does not mean they would mind doing it. It's too risky to take that chance.'

"Just making the point," Ruffnut assured her.

'Was the real point that a thousand words where twenty could work is needlessly annoying?' Von asked.

"Nah, the more words the better," Ruffnut shot back.

"The better to wake me with," Maour said, leaning forward and stretching his arms out. He had just woken up, but Ruffnut could tell he was already tense. She resisted the urge to prod at his back; Tuffnut would relax by knocking her out of the saddle, but he wasn't Tuffnut and Von might not be able to catch her.

"They're headed toward an island," he said after a drawn-out yawn. "Arguing about whether it's late enough to stop for the night. Sounds like they will."

'There are some sea stacks out over there,' Von huffed, briefly banking to the right to indicate where she was looking.

"I see them… I recognize them, too," Maour said solemnly.

'How long?' Von asked quietly.

'Yesterday, early morning,' Maour replied.

Ruffnut groaned as loudly as she could; the other two might be hiding their disappointment, but she had no such inclination. That meant Von was two days and a night behind the Skrill now. The gap between them was only getting bigger, and they had long since passed into unknown territory, far to the North of all the islands she knew. North of everything Maour knew too, which was a much more impressive accomplishment given he spent time staring at maps.

There was no turning back, though. They would never be able to find Toothless again if they lost the trail that badly. He could give Maour a direction of travel, and what his surroundings looked like, but that was only useful while they were on the move.

Such thoughts had run through her mind a hundred times before, and they were no more comforting this time around than the last. She was seriously considering asking to be abandoned at the next good island they came across, if there was one. Maybe Von could catch up with less of a burden to carry. At this point, she would be willing to take one for the team… so long as taking one for the team also meant she got to do something other than sit in a saddle and lose a chase day in and day out.

"They've seen something on the island," Maour said suddenly. "A village."

O-O-O

'That makes this annoying,' Toothless' captor growled. He had gone dark, for lack of a better term, all of the little snaps and crackles of excess lightning disappearing. Toothless hadn't even known that was something the Skrill could control prior to now.

'What, that?' the older Skrill asked, eyeing the flickering lights and unnatural shapes dotting one side of the long, flat island. It was too far still to see much, though that was changing with every beat of the Skrills' wings. 'Just raze it to the ground.'

'Who will guard the Usurpers while we do that?' the younger asked. 'We both need to be there for it to be easy.'

'I might like a challenge,' the older one said casually 'But I have a better idea. These worthless excuses for Usurpers are flightless, and this island lacks any sort of cover. Drop them at one side, destroy the other before they can do anything, and then tomorrow we can enjoy tracking them down and capturing them all over again before we leave.'

"That could be an opportunity," Maour said hopefully. "Find somewhere to hide and stall for time."

Toothless had just been thinking the same thing; he blinked twice in rapid succession, the agreed-upon signal for 'yes'. Maour had worked out a whole collection of ways for him to communicate soundlessly. Talking was still punishable by being shocked, not to mention the dangers of discussing his plans for escape within earshot of his captors, however one-sided the conversation would seem to them.

'I like that plan,' the younger Skrill said, 'but it sounds to me like you just want an excuse to switch captives.'

'We're more than halfway home,' the older Skrill shot back. 'I want to play with yours before we get there.'

'If you catch him before I do, then fine,' the younger hummed. 'But if I get him first, you will stop bothering me about it.'

'Deal,' the Skrill buzzed eagerly.

Toothless mentally amended his plan; he was going to stall for as much time as possible, and then run right into the clutches of the younger Skrill if at all possible. He pitied Einn, constantly subjected to random little shocks whenever his captor grew bored, but not enough to switch out with him and bear whatever the Skrill would do to someone he considered strong enough to take it.

Not that the younger Skrill was that much better than the elder; Toothless knew all too well that he was avoiding pain only because he was cooperating. He didn't doubt for a moment that either would slit his throat if they felt free to do so. The relative kindness of his captor was just a lack of sadistic tendencies, nothing more.

And he wasn't even sure of that, since both Skrill seemed eager to go slaughter an entire human village. It was a small one, maybe two dozen buildings and a tiny dock, so small he felt confident in saying he could have taken it himself if given reason to do so. He had no idea why the Skrill felt it would be dangerous for only one of them to attack. He didn't know why they were intending to attack at all, actually, aside from the obvious motivators of boredom and a general dislike of humans.

"I think I see some cliffs," Maour observed as the Skrill flew around to approach the island from the far side. "Try looking for caves there once they let you go."

Toothless didn't see any caves, but he supposed that was the point. If they were visible from the air, it wouldn't take much time to find him. He needed to hide out for at least a few days, if Von was going to have any chance of catching up.

Then again, the Skrill were still suspicious about his tail, so they might fly off, assuming he had managed to flee the island. It would be a safe bet that Einn would be incapable of saying anything to them. However, that might put Von in danger, but he could tell her which way they had gone, and she could avoid them and come to the island, where Maour could fix his tail and he could actually fly away.

He hadn't let himself give up hope, never that, but having an actual, workable plan made him feel great. Even more so when that plan relied on him, not on his sister pushing herself day in and day out to no avail. Maour was doing his best to keep everyone hopeful and motivated, but he could almost see the weight of responsibility slowly crushing her-

The sudden lack of talons holding him up occurred to Toothless a heartbeat before he hit the ground and skidded to a stop in the thankfully soft, springy grass of an untended field. Einn hit the ground beside him like a rock, not moving at all.

'No food tonight,' the older Skrill hummed, landing in front of them. There was a mean look in his eyes, meaner than usual. 'No leaving the island.'

The younger Skrill landed next to him. 'I just thought of something,' he said. 'They might fire on us while we're getting rid of the humans.'

'What?' the older hissed. 'You thought we were leaving them awake for the actual attack?'

Toothless had no time to react to the swift lunge. A talon smacked down on his head, knocking him to the ground. He thrashed wildly, madly desperate to avoid being knocked unconscious, to preserve his precious link with Maour, but something slammed into his head and all went black.

O-O-O

A heavy, thundering headache dragged Toothless back to reality. He pawed feebly at the air above his head, trying in vain to stop whoever was thumping his head over and over again… and then slowly realized that nothing was there, the pain was entirely internal.

He opened his eyes, saw double, and closed them again, holding back the urge to throw up. The Skrill fed him and Einn whatever they could get from shocking the water once or twice, and while that usually meant he wasn't going hungry, it wasn't consistent enough for him to be wasting food.

He lay in the grass and dirt for a time, waiting for his headache to reside. It was cold out, far colder than he was used to, and while he could hear flames crackling in the distance, they weren't close enough to warm him.

He knew what the flames had to be, just as he knew why his link to Maour was gone; thinking about it was beyond him at first, but once the pain began to subside…

This island was the only place his siblings would know to look for him. They were at least a day away, probably more like two if Von didn't fly herself halfway to death to reach him sooner. If he wasn't here when they arrived, they wouldn't know where to go next, and while the Skrill were keeping to a mostly straight course, it wasn't straight enough for Von to follow without landmarks. Landmarks he couldn't provide anymore.

He forced himself up and his eyes open, weathering the renewed nausea and blurry afterimages that came whenever he looked around. There was, as he had suspected, a roaring bonfire where the small village had been. Einn was still on the ground beside him. The Skrill were nowhere in sight.

They would be coming for him in the morning. They were clever enough to sleep out of reach of him up until now, usually putting him and Einn on sea stacks far from them, and he doubted they would fail to do as much this time. Finding them and killing them was out of the question.

Hiding wasn't, though. He could still hide, and maybe ambush them as they came for him…

He looked over at Einn again, but the other Fury was still unconscious. It might have been possible to wake him, but Toothless couldn't think of anything Einn could do to help him. His wings were disturbingly crooked, and there was no fight left in him. At best, if he were awake he could hide somewhere else and drag out the search a little longer, but Toothless doubted Einn would be willing to do that. There was even some logic to giving up and waiting for the Skrill to come back; they were grounded, and as far as Einn knew that meant they were doomed no matter what they did.

Toothless left the other Fury where he lay, and turned toward the closest shore. The island was elevated, cliffs sticking out of the sea with grassy plains on top, so when he reached the edge there was no shoreline, just an end to the stone and a drop to the ocean below. He peered over, digging his claws into the cracks in the stone for what little leverage he could get, but the cliff face was sheer and unbroken for as far as he could see, which wasn't all that far.

He continued along the edge of the stone, occasionally looking down to check for caves. As he walked, the smoky pyre of what had been a village continued to obscure part of the sky. Following the edge of the island was leading him closer, and would soon lead him into the village itself.

He did his best to ignore what that meant and concentrate on looking for caves. It really did take all of his concentration; his head was still spinning, and the blurry afterimages had transitioned to everything looking blurry instead, making it harder to be sure he wasn't missing something. He was pretty sure that if Eldurhjarta could have seen him, she would have forced him to lay down and do nothing for a long while.

Between looking for caves and trying not to fall over, or throw up, or miss one in his misery, he didn't realize he had made his way into the village until he had to step over a scorched chunk of wood. Even then, it took him a few long moments to actually determine what that meant and look up.

The fires had all gone out in the time it took him to circle around half the island; only a few smoldering embers remained. Wreckage was everywhere, not a single building left standing, and the smells wafting along in the breeze were enough to ensure he didn't look that closely at what else was everywhere. He didn't know how the Skrill had attacked, what methods they had used to kill, and he didn't want to know.

There were no caves in the cliffs by the former village, not even by the docks, and as he continued onward, none on the other side of the island. His headache hadn't gone away, and though it felt like he had just woken a short time ago, the night was growing old. The dizziness wasn't going away either, and he was fairly certain his odd sense of time was also the fault of his head injury.

Einn was his landmark, the point where he had started looking, so when he reached the other Fury, he stopped and sat down.

'No caves,' he huffed to himself. Usually, he spent part of each night talking to Maour, though there hadn't been much to say, but now he couldn't even do that. 'A flat island with nowhere to go…'

Nowhere except the village, with its smoldering wreckage.

He began the trek back to the village, this time cutting across the middle of the island. The moon was definitely on its way down, and he was running out of time to figure out what he was doing.

He needed to stall for time. That meant hiding. Hiding was the safe option, anyway; the Skrill intended to hunt him down for fun, so they wouldn't really care if he hid. The better he hid, the smaller the gap between the Skrill and Von… but that gap wasn't going to matter once he was taken away from this island, because the next time the Skrill changed direction, nobody would know.

In a perfect world, he would kill the Skrill and just wait here for Von to catch up, but that was difficult to the point of being foolish to attempt. He had been told that, outside of a thunderstorm, a Night Fury could beat a Skrill, but he highly doubted that such odds applied to a grounded Night Fury against two Skrill. Especially these Skrill, who were bigger than normal and had caught him and Einn with such ease. They seemed experienced, or at least the older one did. He wouldn't catch them with obvious tricks.

The rubble of the village outskirts caught his eye. Specifically, the sharp, broken pieces of wood, and the discarded weapons lying around.

He wished, now more than ever, that he still had Maour in his head. The idea that had just come to mind would be tricky enough to pull off with his brother's advice. Toothless had seen a few rudimentary traps for dragons before, but he had never built one, and he didn't have much time.

It was still a better idea than just hiding, so he decided to try it anyway.

O-O-O

The sun shone on Toothless' right eye, but not his left. He resisted the urge to move his head out of the beam; any movement could give him away.

'Come out, you cowardly sack of black scales,' the older Skrill called out in a sing-song voice that made Toothless want to bite him even more. Something cut off the single beam of sunlight on his face, though he wasn't in a position to see what. A moment later it was back again.

'I'm telling you, he's sitting in the water somewhere,' the younger Skrill called down from above.

'Did you find a Usurper in the waves?' the older one snarled, his voice crackling. 'No? Then you're wrong!'

'I will find him, just you wait and see,' the younger shot back.

The sound of lightning and then exploding wood, a distinct crackle followed by many smaller thumps as shards rained down, followed that retort. Toothless hunched closer to the ground.

He was beginning to regret his hiding place. Digging into the middle of one of the collapsed huts had seemed like a great idea at the time, and he was so far from the outside world that light barely reached him, but above him was a hut's worth of broken wood, supported by a few mostly-intact beams, but otherwise just sitting there, precariously positioned over his head.

He was well-hidden, but that wouldn't matter so much if a Skrill decided to blast his pile and accidentally got him crushed. Hopefully they would give up before then. Or hurt themselves in his less than stellar attempts at making traps out of the other piles of wood lying around. He just didn't have the hands necessary to make fine adjustments, and his attempts had mostly consisted of making other piles as unstable as possible without making it obvious.

One had collapsed almost immediately after the Skrill came down to begin searching. He had made three, so there were still two standing. He didn't know how long he had been hiding, long enough for the Skrill to get frustrated. Probably long enough for all of the wreckage to be searched once, meaning his traps might not have collapsed when they were supposed to.

It had been a long shot, one he wasn't surprised to see fail. He was far more invested in his original plan, hiding until they assumed he had somehow flown away. That was still an option; if the sadistic, older Skrill pronounced the wreckage clear, then the younger one probably wouldn't argue.

A sinister rumbling began somewhere nearby, the Skrill growling and humming by turn, prowling around close by. The noise rose and fell randomly, making it impossible to tell how close the Skrill was at any given moment, just that he was still around.

'I cannot smell you,' the Skrill announced. 'Blood and dust and lightning overwhelm the stench of your cowardice, and I was never one for smells in the first place. But I know you are here. Hiding in the ruins of others who would have opposed us, if given the chance."

Something shifted above Toothless, moved by the wind or by chance. He didn't move a muscle, even when a few splinters bounced off his back.

'That is always the way of your kind, though,' the Skrill continued. 'Leading the charge and then cowering behind the mess you make. We would not be here if one of your kind had not tried to escape.'

Toothless thought he could hear the crackling of lightning on the Skrill now. It sounded like he was getting closer.

'I would not be here,' the Skrill continued. 'Stuck searching for a cripple who would die here anyway if I left. Pathetic.'

It was extremely obvious that the Skrill was trying to provoke him, and Toothless had no intention of giving himself away… but it still bothered him. Partially because he was being insulted, but also because he had the nagging feeling the Skrill wasn't just talking about their current situation.

Maour had always wanted to understand why Skrill hated Night Furies, and only the Skrill knew. It was entirely possible this one was dropping hints that Maour, or Eldurberg, or any of the Eldurs would want to hear. But instead, Toothless was the one hearing, and likely forgetting, any cryptic clues the Skrill gave out-

Wood smacked against wood, and there was a loud crash, followed by the telltale sound of lightning striking something. Not Toothless' pile of wreckage, as he was still alive and unharmed. One of the others, maybe one of the two he had rigged finally giving out.

'I know you're here!' the Skrill screeched angrily. 'I'll shatter everything big enough to hide you before I leave!'

Which, Toothless reflected as he huddled under a large pile of wooden wreckage, was something he really should have thought of. It would take some serious effort to disperse the massive pile of scorched wood above him, but if the Skrill was going to go to that effort anyway, for the entire village, then he was in trouble.

'Did you find him?' the other Skrill asked eagerly, likely having flown in from above. Toothless was mostly guessing about that; for all he knew, the other Skrill had never left, instead electing to remain silent throughout the older one's rant.

'The worm's hiding somewhere close,' the older Skrill snarled. 'Start blowing these piles apart.'

'I don't want to waste my energy,' the younger one objected. 'We were sent out to get the one back, and we still have that one. This one will be stuck here if we leave-'

'Stuck here?' the older Skrill said slowly. 'Yes. Stuck. On an island with nothing but some ruins. No fresh water, a few dozen prey that will not last long…'

Toothless was fairly certain he had seen the remains of a few wells dotted around the ruined village, but the Skrill probably didn't know what they were for. Water would be a hassle, but it was available.

'Their kind do not swim,' the younger said casually. 'You proved that.'

'Yes, I did,' the older rumbled. 'Okay, you've convinced me. Grab the one we came for, and let's go.'

Toothless held his breath, unable to believe his luck was turning around so quickly. Sure, they thought they were leaving him to die, it made sense, but he still couldn't believe it. Even when he heard two sets of wings disappearing into the distance. He didn't move.

TIme passed, and he lingered under the wreckage, unwilling to leave. It was almost impossible for him to tell how long he spent waiting, just to be sure the Skrill had left; the sun moved, and there was no longer a beam of light on one of his eyes, but that was his only indication. He waited.

Long enough for them to pick up Einn. Long enough for them to fly to the horizon, or so he hoped. To leave, to go so far there was no chance they would change their minds and turn around.

If it weren't for the danger his hiding place posed, and his growing thirst, he would have tried to stay hidden through the night and next day, until his siblings caught up. As it was, he lasted until what he thought had to be dusk, then began the laborious process of pushing out into the open, shifting piles of ash and half-burned planks with his paws. His head was pounding yet again; the headache from being knocked out had been replaced by a headache brought on by thirst.

The fading light of the setting sun was bright to his eyes, and he blinked a few times as he crawled out into the open-

Talons stabbed into the ground on either side of him and a familiar weight slammed him into the ground, then yanked him up again. A shock ran through him as he thrashed, but he didn't care, he had gotten away, they were supposed to be gone!

'You lasted longer than I thought you would,' the younger male said from above, his voice cold. 'Pointless, we were never going to leave, but still. Don't do it again.'

A much stronger shock ran through Toothless, strong enough that he was seeing stars and cramping up in every possible place. It didn't end, going on and on while he shrieked until his throat was raw.

O-O-O

Einn was surprised he could still feel disappointment, but there was no mistaking the bitter feeling that came across him when he saw Angry returning with the other Fury's limp form in his talons.

He had known better than to hope, but apparently knowing better wasn't enough to stop himself when both Skrill had flown away with him, but not the other. They had talked about luring the other captive out by making him think they had left, but with every change of which one was watching, it had seemed more and more likely that the plan wouldn't work.

He had woken up well after sunrise; for all he knew, the other Fury could really have flown away in the night. Flying without a tailfin seemed like it would be hard - not as hard as flying without working wings, but not impossible. He had never tried, would never try… but he had hoped.

He had been stupid to hope. All it got him was more disappointment, when he was trying not to feel anything. No hope, no fear, no regret…

Definitely no regret. Even now, he didn't regret flying out into the thunderstorm when he thought of the kind people he had saved by doing so. The Skrill didn't even think he and the other - Kappi, if he remembered right, but he probably didn't - had lived on the island, they didn't know there was an island there. That was the best safety he could possibly offer Hjarta and all the rest.

All but this one, Kappi. He was the other sacrifice. If Einn could have spoken, he might have told him that. Give the younger male a reason to feel proud of himself. He would need it, with what they were going back to. With all the time in the world to think, something to hold on to was invaluable.

Something to hold on to… Einn shivered, earning himself a shock, administered so nonchalantly he was certain Sadistic had done it out of reflex and not actually noticed his movement.

He was being taken back. He would soon be seeing his son again. Facing the cold, the disappointment, the hurt, the anger. And he would deserve it. He had ruined his son's life, then failed to save himself, and failed to save his son, and failed to save this other young male with his whole life ahead of him. And nobody could ever know who he had saved, for fear of the Skrill shocking it out of them later.

Einn stared down at the water, trying not to think any longer. He was good at not thinking, at just doing as he was told and suffering in silence. Going back to his icy prison wouldn't be hard, though the mere thought was terrible.

No, it would be all too easy. That, more than anything, made him want to stop thinking. Captivity was a thousand times worse after having a taste of freedom.

Author's Note: Next chapter is a big one! We're moving over the whole 'pursuit' part of this story really quickly because it's not the focus of the story. We'll be getting into one of the main parts of the story next time.

(Also, extra thanks to my beta reader for this one; I got this chapter to them only 5 days before posting it, where usually we do two weeks in advance.)