A/N: I don't know why I feel the need to post an update pretty much every day...I just can't help myself, I guess. P.S.— It is so cool how people from all over the world are reading this!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I lost HTTYD in the divorce. All I own now is a pair of socks.

VALKA'S POV

After a brief period of searching, Cloudjumper had managed to find my son's discarded wooden bow in a small clearing just outside the icy walls of the nest. I tried not to freak out when I saw the item and no Hiccup, but my mind was going crazy with the possibilities. Cloudjumper was able to pick up Hiccup's faint scent, and he'd followed it away from the nest towards the south. We'd been flying for a while, and there was still no sign of my son. We were nearing the coast, which meant there wasn't a lot of land left to search. I couldn't figure out why he would fly out this far. He said he was going to practice archery in the forest.

My gaze was scouring the land below, but a panicked screech made my head snap up. After a few seconds, I could make out the familiar form of Shimmer, the Deadly Nadder that liked to spend time with Hiccup and Toothless. What was she doing out here? And more importantly, why did she look so frantic?

Cloudjumper sped up to meet the out of breath Nadder, slowing into a hover when we reached her. *What happened?* He questioned calmly as she flew back and forth in front of us nervously.

*It's Hiccup! He's in trouble!* She answered quickly, her eyes flitting between us and the direction she came from.

"What?!" I exclaimed, following her line of sight. I couldn't see anything past the large hill in front of us. "Where, Shimmer? Show us, now!" I ordered. She chirped in agreement and immediately twisted around, flapping her wings as hard as she could. Cloudjumper stayed hot on her tail.

The flight was short—she hadn't gotten very far. I took in a sharp breath when I noticed the ship on the beach. No no no...It had clearly been damaged and ended up crashing here. But what were humans doing all the way out here? This island was even farther north than the Northern Markets, and it was surrounded by miles and miles of ocean. It wasn't even on any map I'd ever seen. Based on the state of the ship, my assumption was they'd landed themselves in quite the storm, and it had pushed them way off course.

I nudged Cloudjumper, and he glided down to the ship, landing warily on the deck. Shimmer set down right beside us, her head lowering anxiously. I jumped down, looking around. I couldn't see or hear Hiccup, and there was no sign of any people onboard. Had they survived the storm? I could tell from the netting and small cages littered around that they were trappers. If they had survived and were now roaming the island...

"Hello? Hiccup!" I called out, staying next to Cloud. "Where are you?" I continued, pressing a worried hand to my forehead as my heart began to pound. Cloudjumper hunkered down next to me, his chest rumbling. Shimmer appeared just as on edge. It seemed as if she would take off at any second.

I blinked in surprise when Toothless suddenly jumped out from beneath the floorboards through a large hole, which now that I really noticed it looked like a boulder had smashed through the wooden planks. My entire body froze when I took in Toothless' appearance. His scales were covered in blood, his pupils were narrow slits, and he looked absolutely murderous. He was unrecognizable.

I held a shaky hand to my mouth, placing the other one on Cloud's shoulder to keep me standing. Toothless seemed to stare right through us, and he growled viciously, stalking forwards. I knew right away that he fully intended to attack, and that I needed to treat this situation carefully. Whatever had happened before we got here triggered all those instincts in him I'd been trying to repress all these years.

"Mom!" Hiccup's shout broke into my thoughts, and I flinched, reluctantly taking my eyes off the predator in front of me to see if my son was okay. He was climbing out from below deck through a hatch a few feet away. As soon as his feet hit the deck, he ran over to me. I gasped when I saw the light spattering of blood on his tunic and hands, and I reached out to grab him once he was close enough.

"Hiccup! Oh my gods, what happened?!" I questioned, checking him over for any injuries. When my eyes finally wandered up to his face, I noticed dried tears on his cheeks. His answer was cut off by Toothless' snarl, and Cloudjumper suddenly pushed us back with his wing, rearing up defensively. Shimmer raised her tail, flicking her spikes into a position to launch.

They couldn't fight Toothless! Other than the fact that he was a Night Fury who could blow us away with a single blast, he was also family. He needed our help. This was hardly the time to fight fire with fire. Of course, asking a dragon not to defend itself wasn't an easy task. Cloudjumper and Shimmer were just reacting the way any dragon would under threat. Toothless' mouth started to glow, and Hiccup yanked himself from my grasp while I was distracted, barging past Cloud's wing to stand between the dragons. Oh, for the love of...What is he doing?!

He held out both hands, one towards Cloudjumper, and the other towards Toothless. The purple glow of his dragon's fire faded a bit. Hiccup glared up at Cloud as he stepped backwards slowly to stand directly in front of Toothless. "Leave him alone! He's just protecting me!" He snapped angrily. Under different circumstances, I would've sighed in exasperation at my son's border-line dangerous loyalty to his dragon. As it was, I stayed silent, afraid any sound I made would further agitate the Night Fury. Besides, I had to admit that Hiccup was our best shot at calming Toothless down.

Cloudjumper dropped back down to the deck, huffing in irritation. Shimmer followed suit, lowering her tail spikes. Satisfied that one problem was taken care of, Hiccup turned to face the other one. Toothless' pupils were constantly changing in size, and he sniffed at Hiccup's outstretched hand.

"You don't have to be mad, anymore, bud." Hiccup whispered softly. "It'll be okay, I promise. Just come back to me," he begged gently. I watched their interaction closely, leaning against Cloud for comfort. Toothless glanced past my son briefly, letting out another growl, but Hiccup quickly placed an open palm on his dragon's snout to capture his attention. "It's just us, bud. Just focus on me." Toothless quieted, and his pupils dilated a little more as he met Hiccup's gaze. "I love you. No matter what." Hiccup declared, and finally Toothless relaxed, shutting his eyes. When they opened again, I saw the dragon we all knew and loved—the real Toothless. I sagged with relief, patting Cloudjumper's side.

Hiccup wrapped his arms around his dragon's neck. "I'm sorry," he murmured, and I could hear a slight tremor in his voice. He was definitely shaken up. Toothless looked around as if he had forgotten where he was—maybe he had. When his eyes fell on the open hatch that Hiccup had come out of, he pulled away and shook his head roughly. Hiccup stood still, allowing Toothless to work through his memories.

Toothless looked down at his bloody paws and flinched, ducking his ears and backing away from us. *What...what did I do?* He whimpered, then glanced up at Hiccup with wide eyes. *Did I hurt you?* He fretted. Hiccup shook his head quickly and walked over to Toothless, lifting up his head.

*Of course not, bud. You'd never hurt me. This is the bad men's fault, not yours.* He insisted. Toothless licked his hand hesitantly, while I straightened up in surprise. What was he talking about?

I stepped away from Cloudjumper, waving off his growl of protest, and moved towards my son. Toothless noticed my approach and subtly shifted behind Hiccup, hunching over like he does when I'm scolding him for something. Only he could go from terrifying killer to nervous puppy in the span of a few seconds. At least he wasn't trying to attack me anymore.

Hiccup followed his dragon's gaze to me, and he ran over to meet me halfway, burying his face in my stomach as he hugged me. I rubbed his back soothingly, ignoring the blood on his shirt. After a minute I heard him sniffling, so I gently grabbed his hands and detached them from my waist so I could crouch in front of him. I caressed his knuckles, relieved to see that the blood on his hands wasn't his own.

"I'm sorry, Mom...I-I was stupid! Toothless was just trying to protect me 'cause I went down there and the bad men were gonna hurt me! We never should've left the forest!" He rambled, his words coming out between short, gasping breaths. His chest was heaving with panic, so I released one of his hands to cup his cheek.

"Hiccup, hey, it's okay. I'm not angry, and none of this is your fault, okay?" I said firmly, wiping away one of his tears. He nodded, sniffing as he tried to calm down. Once I was sure he wouldn't hyperventilate, I continued. "Buddy, I need you to tell me what happened," I urged softly.

He bit his lip, then glanced towards the hole that I assume Toothless had created. "Shimmer told us about the ship, so we flew here to see it, and Toothless didn't wanna come closer but I did—" he paused to blink away fresh tears—"and I wanted to see if there was any cool stuff inside, but there wasn't." He shook his head with an angry frown. "There was just the bad men...I-I couldn't get away, and I got scared 'cause they were gonna hurt me, and Toothless came to save me, but then..." He trailed off, staring at his hands. "He just got so mad. I don't think he could hear me anymore. The bad men tried to hurt him, too, but Toothless was stronger. He stopped them." Hiccup finished, pressing his lips together as he awaited my reaction. I made sure my expression gave nothing away.

Hiccup's first experience with humans, and it went like this...I hated trappers—I'd killed my fair share of them on missions—but that didn't mean I wanted my son to see them slaughtered before his eyes. And based on the amount of blood on Toothless, it had definitely been a slaughter. Hiccup has never liked humans because they hurt dragons and the dragons are his family, but this has probably demonized humans completely in his eyes. Now, not only did the humans want to hurt dragons, but they wanted to hurt him, too.

Oh, Stoick...what am I supposed to do? Being a single mother was difficult in moments like these. I wished more than anything that Berk was the kind of place I could safely raise my son. I needed Stoick now more than ever.

I reached up to kiss Hiccup's forehead. "It'll be okay, darling. The bad men are gone now. They can't hurt you or Toothless." I assured him. "There's, um...there's something I need to take care of. Why don't both of you go down to the ocean to clean up?" I suggested. He needed to get off this ship. "Don't go too far, though," I added. Hiccup pursed his lips and nodded, stepping away to go back to Toothless. The Night Fury hadn't moved an inch since I came over, and avoided my gaze at all costs. I'd have to talk to him later, once we got back to the nest.

Hiccup climbed into the saddle, then his eyes widened. "There's a Tiny-wing down there!" He remembered, pointing at the deck. "I was gonna help him, but..."

"I'll get him. You go ahead," I said, forcing a smile onto my face.

"Yeah...okay..." He agreed. Toothless jumped when Hiccup tapped him lightly, breaking out of his trance, then obediently opened his wings and leapt over the ship rail to glide down to the water.

I immediately turned to Cloud, sighing heavily. He crooned at me sympathetically, ambling forwards to nuzzle against my arm. "This day really took a turn for the worst, huh?" I muttered. He merely grunted in response. "Well, I guess I just need to get it over with," I stated, walking over to the hatch. Before I climbed down, I glanced at Shimmer. She was watching me silently, and tilted her head when I looked at her. "You did good, Shimmer. You don't have to stay here...You can go back to the nest." I told her. I could see how much she wanted to leave. This entire situation had frightened her deeply. I'm glad she had the presence of mind to go for help.

*Are you sure...?* She asked, raising her wings hesitantly.

I sent her a reassuring smile. "I'm positive. You go, we'll be fine." I promised. That's all the confirmation she needed, and the next second she was up in the air, flying back towards home with a farewell squawk.

I turned my attention back to the hatch, and reluctantly made my way down. As soon as my head cleared the deck, the horrible stench of blood hit me full force, and I quickly covered my nose and mouth. Dim candlelight was the only source of light besides the sunlight that streamed through the hole on the other side of the room. I stepped off the ladder and turned, gagging immediately when I saw the massacre before me.

I counted six bodies. Each one was ripped to shreds, and some were missing limbs entirely—one of them didn't have a head. There was blood everywhere. It stained every inch of the wood in the center of the room. I squeezed my eyes shut, pinching the bridge of my nose. I hadn't expected to see anything good, but this...this was the stuff of nightmares. It's certainly not an image I wanted to be stuck in my seven year old's head. I don't know what those men did, or what they were planning to do, but I hoped in some way that they deserved this. Maybe then I could live with this memory.

I'd always known there was something terribly dangerous in Toothless—after all, his mother had killed a fellow nest-mate over some fish. He was socialized enough when he was young that he could live peacefully—for the most part—with the other dragons of the nest, but he'd never encountered other humans before this. There's no way I could've prepared him to deal with them. In the face of an unfamiliar situation, he'd fallen back on his base instincts. I couldn't blame him for that, and I wouldn't. I refused to fear him because of this. He's a good dragon. I'm sure of that.

A quiet squeak interrupted my thoughts, and I maneuvered through the bloody mess to get to the other side of the room. There was a Terrible Terror cowering in the corner of his small cage. *Bad men...kill kill...* He mumbled to himself, his eyes flicking around wildly. I quickly unlatched the cage door, lifting the frightened dragon out gently.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you. You're free now," I whispered, holding him up towards the hole in the deck. He eyed me warily for a moment, unsure whether it was just another trap. As soon as I opened my hands to release his wings, though, he scrambled off my palms, flapping frantically out of the dark space. Well...at least one good thing came of all this. There was only one thing left to do.

After checking for anything of informational value and only finding trapping-related documents that were useless to me, I climbed back up the ladder to the deck. I inhaled the fresh air, happy to be free of the overwhelming smell of blood, and hurried over to Cloud. He bent down, allowing me to jump onto his back.

"Destroy everything," I ordered him. There was no need to ask why, and he flapped his wings to send us upwards and away from the ship. As soon as we were a safe distance from the wreckage, he unleashed the full force of his flame, moving his head back and forth to cover the entire span of the ship.

The evidence of today's events would burn to ashes, even if the memories couldn't.

P.S.S.— You guys didn't think I would kill off Valka, did you?! Pfffft, what a crazy idea!