"Ah, Hiccup, there you are. Can't have you miss your first day of Dragon Training." Gobber limped into the the forge. "And I see you've made a new friend. Gobber the Belch, nice to meet you."

"Horrendous the, uh… Crafter." Horrendous shook Gobber's hand. "I'll be helping you out around here so that Hiccup can focus on his training."

"Good to see ya up and moving, you were out for four days!" Four days. Great. He was already four days into this whole fiasco and he hadn't even done anything yet. That was four days where Toothless was on his own.

Horrendous swallowed down a lump in his throat at the thought of his friend. What if Toothless had drowned out at sea, or had injured himself and wasn't able to hunt and was starving to death? He felt his heartbeat pick up, breaths getting shorter, chest feeling like there were ropes around it, constricting, tightening.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked, and Horrendous stumbled backward a bit at seeing the younger kid, back hitting a table of tools in for sharpening, a few knives falling off the table and clattering to the ground. Gods, what was he doing?! What was all of this?! He was in the past! His heartbeat was filling his ears, and some part of him was aware he was having a panic attack.

Did anybody know he was gone yet? What would happen to his village? Would his mom have to take over? Snotlout? How long would they spend searching? What if Toothless wasn't even here, but trying find him back in the future?

"C'mon, breath with me boy."

Horrendous blinked, trying to focus on the voice. Gobber.

Just past the roar in his ears, Horrendous could hear an exaggerated inhale and exhale. Something younger in him caught onto to it quickly as the two simple actions cycled through. In. Out. His chest shook from the effort of not speeding up his breathing again.

What if Stoick finds out he can ride dragons, and banishes him from Berk?

Horrendous's breathing picked up again and then there was a hand tight on his shoulder and metal on his other. He pushed through the panic, finding the slow breathing rhythm in front of him again and did his best to mimic it.

When he was no longer hyperventilating, he realized that at some point during his panic attack he had fallen to the floor and curled up into himself. Gobber was kneeling down in front of him, hand on hook on his shoulders. He wasn't doing the deep breaths anymore, but his eyebrows were raised. Horrendous shook his head, clearing the last of it, and climbed back to his feet.

"Are you okay?"

Hiccup was standing off to the side, and Horrendous didn't freak out this time. Hiccup himself actually seemed freaked out. Horrendous rubbed a hand down his face, letting out a long and slow breath.

"Yeah. Sorry about that. I, uh, I haven't done that since I was a kid." Horrendous scratched the back of his head, avoiding eye contact with the other two.

"Nothing to be embarrassed about!" Gobber gave Horrendous a pat on the back strong enough to make him stumble forward a step. "Hiccup here used to panic when he was little too! Had to learn how to calm him down. Now then, let's get you to Dragon Training, Hiccup."

Horrendous waited until they were gone before sitting down on the floor again, closing his eyes as he waited for the tremors that still ran through him to stop. He'd forgotten just how terrible those attacks felt. Despite everything he had been through the past few years, they hadn't resurfaced until today. Then again, this was a whole other brand of stressful than he was used to.

Once he was calm again and could trust his legs to hold him upright, Horrendous stood back up. He contemplated for a moment whether or not he should go and check out the Dragon Training. It would be interesting - maybe even fun - to watch the young him and his rides, his eventually best friends, running around likes chickens with their head chopped off as the terrible terror chased them around, but he didn't want to get their, see them, and have another internal crisis.

So instead he headed in the other direction, towards the woods. He was going to find Toothless, he had to start somewhere.

oOo

The woods, like the village, were quiet in a way that Horrendous wasn't used to. But they were also comforting and familiar, not nearly as different as the village was. Even if he didn't find Toothless out here, he'd probably made a good choice. Here, away from everything else, he could clear his head a bit more.

"Toothless!" Horrendous cupped his hands to his mouth and called out. The dragon had impeccible hearing, and if he was on the island he should hear his name and come. Unless Toothless was hurt. Horrendous quickly pushed the thought out of his head before it could run away with him again. Toothless had survived before him and would be fine on his own for a few days, absolutely nothing to worry about. "C'mon out buddy!"

But the night fury didn't' come forth, running relieve to see him again. After an hour or so of walking and calling, Horrendous found a cliff and sat down on the edge with a sigh. He couldn't say he was terribly surprised that he wasn't finding Toothless. If the dragon was on the island he surely would've gone to the village first and foremost. For a moment the idea that that was exactly what the dragon had done crossed Horrendous's mind but he brushed it off. No, surely if that had happened there would still be celebrating, or his corpse hung up somewhere, or something. After all, these people hadn't even seen a night fury before, killing one would've been a big deal.

A big deal we both gave up, Horrendous thought with a small smile, thinking of the young and awkward Hiccup. Somewhere out in these woods was the night fury that the kid had shot down, but Horrendous had no desire to find him, content to sit back and let Hiccup meet his best friend in his own time.

As he stared out at the sea, he thought about his dad out there. He'd just gotten him back, only for the man to leave. Horrendous wasn't sure whether or not he hoped he was still stuck here in the month it would take for his dad to return. There were so many more things he hadn't gotten to say to Stoick before he died. Then again, it wasn't really his dad, and the chief didn't even know Horrendous was his son.

He supposed, though, that if he had to be stuck in the past anywhere, he wasn't too upset about it being Berk. Dragons or not, past or future, this island was his home.

"Don't worry, Toothless. If you're out there, I'll find you." Horrendous whispered, letting the wind carry his words away.

His search wouldn't get very far very fast, however, without something to ride on.

oOo

Cloudjumper landed behind Valka, crooning to her, and the dragon rider got set down her half-eaten fish, going over to the dragon and setting her hand on his snout.

"What is it?" She asked, and the stormcutter lowered himself farther to the ground, a clear message to get on his back. After grabbing her armor and mask, quickly strapping them on, she swung up behind his frills. She felt as the muscles underneath his scales tensed as the dragon approached the edge of their perch and then jumped out, wings unfolding and catching the air before pumping downward, rising higher into the air. The scuttleclaw hatchlings, teeth just coming in, chirped at them as they left and Valka mimicked the sound back as best she could.

She couldn't keep the grin off of her face as she watched her home pass by, the large and impressive spikes of ice as familiar to her as the huts of Berk once were. Dragons looked up at them as they passed by, a few taking flight and flying with them for a moment, others calling out greetings.

Flying just outside of the Sanctuary was a deadly nadder, who squawked at Cloudjumper and then lead the way. Valka had to admit she was curious where they were taking her. Usually she was the one that orchestrated raids against Drago's ships - ever increasing in quantity and frequency - and usually they allowed her to scout them out, then pick the dragons she suited best for the job.

They stopped at one point by a scauldron, a pile of dead fish by him. The dragons chattered for a moment before both the deadly nadder and Cloudjumper filled their mouths with fish, but didn't eat them, and took off again. The cold air whipped past them, and Valka peered down at the cold snowy tundra below. The deadly nadder flew low to the ground, clearly tracking something, and Valka could just barely make out tracks in the snow.

Gray mountains rose up and the dragons slowed down, landing outside of a dark cave that time and weather had bore into the stone. The opening was too small for Cloudjumper, and the dragon opened his mouth and let the fish fall to the ground outside of it. Valka swung down from him, following the deadly nadder into the cave.

They were greeted by a warning growl from a dragon too far back in the cave to be heard. The deadly nadder dropped his fish, pushing a few of them with his nose towards the dragon. Valka twirled her staff around, the rattling hopefully calming the dragon down. She could make out green eyes, warry slits trained on the deadly nadder as the dragon steadily edged closer to them.

"It's alright." She whispered, staying a respectful distance away.

The dragon's eyes flickered over to her and straightened out of his low and defensive crouch. He darted forward, grabbing a bite of the fish and then tackled her. From outside Cloudjumper growled but cut off when it was obvious she wasn't in trouble, the dragon sniffing her thoroughly and giving her a very slobbery lick, then jumping off.

Now that he was in the light, she had a good view of him and couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her lips. She could count the night furies she had seen on one hand, and here was another before. The ones she'd met had all been very wary of strangers, cautious, never taking their eyes on her, never letting her even get close. This one's pupils were wide and friendly, tongue lolling out of his mouth. When the deadly nadder started eating the fish, the night fury turned his back to her in favor of eating more of the fish.

She slowly approached him, just incase the dragon suddenly decided he was no longer okay with her presence, and stared at the rigging on him with wide eyes. She had seen dragons with armor forcefully strapped onto them before, but this was something new. There was a study leather saddle on his back, straps going over his throat, stomach, and forelegs to keep it in place. Her eyes followed a particular rope connected to one of the stirrups that trailed along his back, all the way down to his tail fins.

"Oh dear, what did they do to you?" She brushed her hand against a ruined red piece of fabric where the fin should've been.