Over the wind that whistled in his ears, Hiccup could hear Toothless' horrified roars. But they were distant, and Hiccup knew that he and his dragon were too far apart. There would be no saving each other this time, no connecting at the last minute to shoot triumphantly back into the sky. This time, there was nowhere to go but down.

Hiccup shielded his face with his arms. He broke the tree line.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Thinner branches snapped on impact, the ones just out of reach hissing menacingly as he whipped past on his inexorable arc towards the earth. A heavy branch slammed into his stomach and did not break; he flipped over it instead. Branches beat him from all sides. Twigs scratched and tore greedily at his clothes.

Was Toothless-?

The sun was beginning to dip over the horizon, a line of red spilling across the ocean. Astrid sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the landing strip in front of the stables. She watched the sky carefully as it darkened.

Footsteps approached her from behind. "Not back yet?" asked Snotlout.

Astrid didn't bother answering.

Snotlout scoffed. "Yeah, that figures. We finally convince him to take a break, and now he doesn't even wanna come back."

Astrid bit her lip, watching the purple clouds that drifted around the blood red sun like smoke. There was no dark shape among them. No swirl of clouds as Hiccup and Toothless streaked through them towards home. "Do you think that's it?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"The reason they aren't back yet. You think they're just enjoying themselves?"

Snotlout dropped down beside her, his legs hanging over the edge, too. "Yeah," he said. "They're just having a little too much fun without us." But something about his tone was off.

Astrid cast a sideways glance in his direction. He was watching the horizon, too, jaw set, brow wrinkled.

A rush of wings and a thud came from behind them, followed by two smaller thuds. Barf and Belch rumbled playfully. Neither Astrid nor Snotlout turned.

"Is this the welcoming party?" Ruffnut asked, as she and her brother sat on either side of Astrid and Snotlout.

Tuffnut grunted disapprovingly. "Doesn't look like a party," he said. "What, are we mad at Hiccup or something?"

Astrid folded her arms. "Yeah, I'm mad at him for not showing up on time. He said he'd be back today."

"Well, it is still today," Ruffnut offered.

Astrid glared at her.

"Yeah, I'm sure they'll come rocketing through those clouds any minute now," Tuffnut added. "All stealthy and cool."

The four of them looked around at the nearby clouds expectantly.

"There!" Ruffnut shouted, after a minute. The rest of them turned to see a patch of gray clouds that was swirling with the distinct movement that signaled an approaching dragon.

Astrid stood up, letting out a long breath, while Snotlout grumbled, "About time."

The clouds churned in the displaced air, and then Meatlug and Fishlegs melted out of the darkness.

"Aw, come on!" Ruffnut pouted. Astrid sat back down hard.

Meatlug landed neatly on the strip, and Fishlegs dismounted in such a hurry that he fell over. He struggled to his feet and ran over to them.

"Hiccup's not back yet?" he asked breathlessly. "I thought... I thought he would be back."

"Yeah, join the club," Snotlout said.

"But he said he'd be back." Fishlegs stood behind Snotlout and Astrid, wringing his hands. "He said he'd be back today."

"It's still today!" the twins chorused.

Fishlegs ignored them and sat down, watching the sun steadily diminish into the ocean. "Um... at what point should we start to worry?" he asked, his voice high-pitched and strained.

"You're late to the game, my friend." Tuffnut jerked a thumb in Astrid and Snotlout's direction. "They started without you."

"I'm not worried!" Snotlout snapped.

"Should we... I dunno, do something?" Fishlegs' frown deepened as the sun finally disappeared, dousing the world in a cold, unfriendly gray. "It's really getting late now, and I definitely recall Hiccup saying he'd be back in the afternoon."

Astrid shook her head. "We should give them til morning. Maybe they had to wait out a storm or something."

Fishlegs nodded. "Yeah, of course," he said. "They're just waiting out a storm. That's definitely it. They're fine. I'm sure they're fine."

"You don't sound very sure," Ruffnut muttered.

"I bet this trip was really good for them." Fishlegs continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I mean, it had to have been! They needed this break. And besides, we convinced them to take it, so- so if anything goes wrong, then... then it's our fault." He swallowed audibly.

"Ugh! Fishlegs!" Snotlout balled his hands into fists. "Just relax! Gods!"

"Okay, okay." Fishlegs ran a hand over his face and sighed heavily. "You're right. Relax. Just relax." He took a deep breath. "In fact, I'm sure that's what Hiccup and Toothless are doing. I bet they're just having a nice relaxing night, lying under the stars. Relaxed and totally safe. Far away from Krogan, or Johann, or any Flyers, or any wild and menacing dragons, or any random catastrophic event like a storm or an eruption or a landslide, or-" He stopped. The other riders were all staring at him, wide-eyed. "What?"

"Way to go, Fishface." Snotlout's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Now it'll be super easy to wait until morning. I don't know about you guys, but I feel really relaxed!" He stood and stormed off towards his hut.

Astrid sighed. "It's gonna be a long night."

Birds. He could hear them at a distance - the echoing croaks of ravens. But they weren't really at a distance, were they? In fact, they were close. Too close?

Hiccup felt a rush of wind near his face, and opened his eyes. He was lying on his back in the darkness, beneath the stars. A raven had hopped up onto his chest, and was watching him inquisitively. A small squawk to his right alerted him to the presence of another, and he turned his head to watch it. It was facing away from him, examining his outstretched arm, peering closely at the fingers of his dirty, bloodied hand.

It pecked him.

"Ah!" Hiccup cried, jolting. The two birds flew off immediately, shrieking their dismay. Hiccup let his raised head thud back onto the hard earth. He groaned quietly; everything ached. Above him, ominous black branches stretched into his line of sight, their edges silhouetted sharply in the starlight. The ravens croaked in the distance. Carrion birds. They had thought him dead.

Hiccup tried to take in a deep breath to calm himself, but found that it only increased his pain. He dragged his left hand up onto his chest and felt around lightly. The leather of his riding gear was scratched in places; he traced the shallow grooves with his fingertips. It was all intact. No open wounds. That was good, at least. Maybe. He let out a slow breath, riding through the pain. Bruised ribs, he guessed. None broken, as far as he could tell.

"Okay," he whispered to himself. "Here we go." With massive effort, he sat up and looked around. The landscape was empty and haunting. The trees were bare, their misshapen trunks and branches sticking out at horrible angles. There was no foliage. No creature made a sound beside the ravens.

Hiccup swept his hand around in the dirt and rubbed his fingers together. He brought it to his nose. The smell of smoke filled his nostrils and lingered on his tongue. There had been a fire here. Hiccup wiped the ashy dirt off on his pants.

First things first: he had to find Toothless. Hiccup braced himself with his hands and moved to stand up. He stopped. His right side was itching horribly. He felt around with his hand. It caught on something, and he hissed as a bolt of pain shot through him. He leaned over and squinted in the dim starlight, trying to get a look.

"Oh, gods." A small bit of wood was sticking out of his side. It had embedded itself clean through the leather of his riding gear. Hiccup closed his eyes. He took a few moments to compose himself, and then looked again. The portion that was jutting out was short and not horribly thick. He let his hand hover over it, not wanting to touch it again. Instead, he brushed his fingers around the wound. There was blood there, but not too much.

Hiccup grit his teeth and braced himself again, this time managing to get all the way to his feet. He would deal with that bit of wood later, once he had found Toothless. His saddlebag had all of their medical supplies in it, and Hiccup didn't want to risk pulling the piece of wood out without those supplies nearby. He had heard stories of vikings pulling little fragments of debris out of themselves, only to bleed out in minutes. He would much rather play it safe.

Now, the next problem. Which way should he go to find Toothless? He knew he had fallen in front of Toothless, so if he tracked back, he should be able to get to his dragon. But he had no idea which direction he had fallen from. He considered the wood in his side again. Right. Branches.

He unsheathed his sword. It lit up in a blaze of fire, but the moonless night was so dark that it hardly helped. The deep orange glow illuminated a meager radius. Hiccup held it up and looked at the tree branches above him, broken from his fall. He walked in an arbitrary direction and checked the next tree. No broken branches. Correcting course, he tried the other direction and found that the next tree over had some broken branches a bit higher up. Good. He was going the right way now, following the trajectory of his descent. If he kept in the same direction, with any luck, he would stumble upon Toothless.

His insides squirmed uncomfortably as he wondered if Toothless should have found him already. Why hadn't he? What was keeping him? Hiccup shook his head. There was no sense worrying about it. He would find Toothless first, and then see what their situation was like. He prayed silently that Toothless was unharmed as he crept onwards.

The circle of light that his sword provided shifted and deformed as a sudden gust of wind sprung up around him. The flames roared, leaping wildly, creating sharp shadows that flickered in and out of existence as the light moved. But the wind that whistled through the bare trees around him began to make a different sound - a frantic rustling. Leaves in the wind. There was unburnt forest up ahead.

As Hiccup edged forward, tips of brown, living branches melted out of the darkness, outlined with dark green needles. He took a breath, lowered his sword, and shouldered his way into the forest. Here, it was thicker - the trees pressed more closely together, their limbs and needles snagging at him as he passed. Occasionally, two specks of light would appear out of the darkness, his firelight reflecting off of the eyes of some forest creature, invisible in the dark except for its disembodied stare as it watched him. But the eyes would vanish just as quickly, hurried footsteps crunching in the undergrowth.

Another gust of wind kicked up, moaning through the spaces between the trees. The surrounding pines creaked like a ship at sea. With every step forward, Hiccup could see only the edges of trees and the thick, tangled undergrowth beneath him. There was no telling what lay in the darkness beyond.

Hiccup's breaths - ragged and harsh as he stumbled onwards - seemed too loud for the night. He wondered if Toothless could hear him coming, could hear each breath he managed to take, each footstep as he forced himself further, each flicker of the agitated firelight as the wind swept through, pulling on Hiccup's hair and clothes like an unseen hand from the shadows.

"Toothless?" His voice was a hollow whisper, snatched away by the wind. He cleared his throat and gripped the hilt of his sword tighter, willing his frenzied heartbeat to slow. "Toothless!"

A raven cawed angrily at the disruption of the heavy silence. Little creatures scurried away in the trees, claws scrabbling on bark. And then Hiccup heard it - a low, draconic moan just discernible above the whispering wind.

"Toothless?" Hiccup started forward through the brush, then steadily increased his pace as he followed the direction of the muffled groans, propelled forward by a sudden inexplicable urge to hurry. A nameless feeling that something was closing in from behind, that safety lay ahead with Toothless, compelled him to run.

His prosthetic caught on an exposed root. Hiccup slammed to the ground on his knees and elbows, the impact jarring his bruised ribs and the wound in his side.

"Ah!" Spots appeared in his vision for a moment, and Hiccup blinked them away, breathing through clenched teeth. Toothless' concerned warbling was loud now, though still muffled. Hiccup dug his free hand into the earth, nails biting through grass, his grip tightening around moist soil and loose rock. With his other hand, he continued to hold his sword aloft, dimly aware that he should keep it away from anything that might catch fire.

He remained in the same position for what might have been several minutes, waiting for the pain to recede back to a more manageable level. Finally, when he felt well enough, and when Toothless' distressed sounds had morphed into an incessant wail of despair, Hiccup sat up.

Toothless quieted immediately. The ensuing silence filled with the creaking of rope. A large net swung directly in front of Hiccup, and in the firelight, he could just see the form of his dragon, tangled up awkwardly in its confines.

"Hey, bud!" A smile broke out across Hiccup's face as he stepped closer to the net, feeling instantly lighter. "You have no idea how good it is to see you!"

Toothless warbled happily and wriggled within the net, swinging it more. Maybe he did have an idea how good it felt.

"Okay, bud, hold still." Hiccup brought his flaming sword up to the net and began to cut through it carefully. When it had snapped apart sufficiently, he stepped back.

Toothless dropped out of the hole, got to his feet, and stretched.

"You all there, bud?"

Toothless made an affirmative sound and shook himself vigorously, unfurling his wings and tucking them in again. Then he advanced towards Hiccup with a questioning warble.

"Yeah, I'm, ah, a little worse for wear this time around." Hiccup stroked Toothless' head as the dragon leaned in close and sniffed him. When he got to the piece of wood in Hiccup's side, he let out a small distressed roar.

"Believe me, I noticed. But you've got all the medical supplies in your saddlebag, so I had to find you first." Hiccup scratched beneath his dragon's chin affectionately. Toothless rumbled and turned to give Hiccup access to the saddlebag.

Still holding his sword up for light, Hiccup fished around in the bag and pulled out the little sack that made up their medical kit. "Got it," he told Toothless. "The only problem is I can't really see what I'm doing." Hiccup frowned at the sword and medical bag in his hands. He doubted he had the strength - or the necessary movement - to build a fire.

Toothless hummed agreeably and then bounded off into the surrounding forest. Hiccup waited, listening to his dragon crashing around. In a minute, he was back with a large branch in his mouth. It reminded Hiccup forcibly of their first bonding moment, back in that little cove on Berk, and he smiled.

"What's your plan, bud?"

Toothless motioned Hiccup back towards the edge of their little open space and placed the branch beside him. With a clear wait here a moment kind of gesture, Toothless returned to the center of the space and began digging hastily, clumps of grass and plants and roots flinging into the air and disappearing into the darkness. In a matter of seconds, he had cleared a good sized area of all plant life; only dirt remained. He came back for the branch, dragged it into the middle, and then set it aflame with a tiny plasma blast. He laid down beside it and rumbled contentedly.

"Thanks, Toothless," Hiccup said fondly. He sheathed his sword, came into the clearing, and dropped the medical bag between Toothless and the fire. Then he stiffly and painfully lowered himself to the ground.

Toothless warbled sadly, watching his rider with large eyes.

"I'll be alright," Hiccup placated. "Just some bruised ribs. It'll heal." He sat up against Toothless, and then pulled a small dagger from its place in his clothes. The metal blade glinted harshly in the firelight. Hiccup stared down at the wood that was still very much present in his side, and then gripped the knife tighter. He glanced at Toothless, who crooned softly in a show of sympathy and support.

Hiccup let out a huff of breath. "Okay," he said. "Here comes the fun part."