REVIEWS:

Tim2060: You won't know until you try.

atomicsub927: Well, I'm afraid I did.

Obiben27: Yeah, I couldn't see anyway to lengthen it without giving too much away or blathering on about unimportant stuff.

Right these wrongs I've cast

What happened? Where did it go? Dragons don't just disappear!

"I don't understand," I muttered, trailing behind Dad as he stalked from one end of the village to the other, demanding answers no one was ready to volunteer. Gobber, also filled with questions, stumped beside me. I didn't have any answers for Toothless, and he didn't have any for me.

"We'll catch another one sooner or later." Dad whirled around so suddenly I jumped back in surprise, his eyebrows fierce and heavy. "And we'll punish the one responsible. No one steals my boy's Nightmare without consequences!"

"Don't feel you have to…" I trailed off, unheard in the bustle of the village.

I should have felt relieved. I had what I'd been craving—more time—but with it came the knowledge that I'd have to go through it all again. The nerves, the sweaty palms, more hiding things from Gobber, more people admiring me for something I wasn't, more constant pressure to keep my two lives separated. At least I'd have more time with Toothless—and Astrid. I craned my neck, trying to see her in the crowd, and Gobber slung his arm across my shoulder.

"Well, now that we have more time, I can show you a few rarer dragons. I'm thinking maybe we can go to the other side of Berk and see if we can find a Timberjack or two, hm?"

"I don't think—"

"Excellent!" Dad enthused. "You start tomorrow."

I swallowed a groan, plastering a smile onto my face that was so fake it itched. We tramped around for another half hour, a large entourage of Vikings blocking off all chance of escape until a hand suddenly plucked at mine, and I almost jumped six feet in the air.

"Don't be such a baby," Astrid hissed. "Follow me."

Mutely, I let her drag me along. Wary of the warrior's famous axe skills, the crowd reluctantly let us through, and we reached the edge of the village without any trouble.

"Thanks." I dragged my fingers through my hair as she dropped my hand and forged ahead, trusting me to follow. "Where are we going?"

"We need to talk," she hissed quietly over her shoulder. "About last night."

"Ah." I swallowed. "The cove?"

"If that's what you call it."

She hesitated by the woods, unsure, and I took the lead. The silence was awkward, neither of us saying anything as we made our way through the woods along the same path I'd taken almost daily for the past few weeks.

The cove was as peaceful as always, green and quiet, until Toothless leapt right across our heads from his perch above the opening and landed right in front of us. Despite clamping her hands across her mouth, Astrid squealed in shock, hefting her axe almost unconsciously.

'Tell her to get rid of it,' Toothless hissed, nodding towards the axe. 'No weapons here.'

I glanced at her, gripping her axe as though she'd die if she let go, and sighed. "Drop the axe, Astrid."

"What?!"

"He doesn't like it, and if he wanted to kill you, it wouldn't do you much good. I'd listen to the twenty five foot dragon if I were you." Fuming, she laid it on the ground.

'Much better.' Yawning, Toothless showed off his teeth, and she took an instinctive step toward her axe again.

"Be nice, Toothless."

'Fine.' He rolled his eyes. 'Ask her why she's here.'

"Uh, you wanted to talk? About last night?"

She nodded. "You're still keeping things from me, aren't you?"

Straight to the point, as direct as an arrow. I tried to think, running back over what I'd told her and what I hadn't.

"In the Nest, you just… collapsed. And it almost sounded like you could understand the dragon. What's going on?"

Oh man. This was going to be impossible to explain. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously.

Don't tell her about Flames,Toothless urged. Say it was the heat.

He was right. At best, she'd think I was lying. At worst, she'd turn me in as a lunatic and I'd be shipped off the island, leaving Toothless to be hunted down. No human would ever fully trust me again. No wonder his inventions bring down half the village on a regular basis, they'd say. He's part dragon. He must be a traitor. Bring out the cross bows and battle axes.

"I'm surprised you didn't collapse," I chuckled awkwardly, starting to feel constricted by my clothes. "It was so hot in there, and then seeing the Queen on top of that—but you've always been stronger than me. Not that it's hard to be stronger than me."

She hummed sceptically, but accepted the compliment. "And talking to him?"

Now what?!

Honestly, what did we do before the flight? You're a terrible liar, Hiccup. Just find something that's still the truth, but makes the other person assume something else.

"Uh—Maybe I should just tell you the entire story, from the beginning?"

Her piercing blue eyes stared at mine calculatingly for a long time, then she nodded. "From the beginning."

I started by explaining why I'd wanted to shoot down a Night Fury, told her how I'd observed it for months idily, never dreaming that one day I'd be the one to shoot it down. I mentioned a few failed inventions, trying to laugh when weeks of hard work and toil were destroyed by Gobber or Dad after one failed attempt—"They'd never give me a chance!"—and moved on to talking about the Mangler. When her eyes started to glaze over as I got too technical, I hurriedly skipped forwards to the night that changed everything.

"You disobeyed a direct order?"

I shrugged. "This seemed more important. Besides, if they'd believed I'd shot down a Night Fury they wouldn't have cared about a small detail like that."

"Go on."

I told her about finding him the next day, and being unable to bring myself to kill him.

At that point, Toothless knocked me over and sat on me, saying something about not being a 'helpless hatchling that needed to be spared out of pity,' and I returned with "don't act like a baby if you don't want to be pitied!"

Astrid—well, she didn't laugh, but she smiled a little.

The next thing I told her was about observing Toothless from above. I tried to conceal how much I'd felt sorry for him, but I knew he knew I'd seen his weakness, and he knew I knew he knew. Then we finally got to the magical moment in the cove, and I caught myself before saying anything about touching his Flame. The early versions of the tail fin were all laughed at by me and Toothless, reliving happy memories, and I didn't mention anything about our dramatic learning experience. Toothless was right, it was far easier to lie by not saying anything, and it was where I had to invent sketchy explanations to cover the gaps in my story where I started to stutter and stumble over my words.

Astrid seemed especially interested in the dragon nip, eel, and light stories, and when I told her about chasing a single soggy fish for hours, she threw back her head and finally laughed. I stared at her, enchanted by the noise that came out of her mouth, and she shook her head impatiently. "Go on."

I briefly mentioned the conversation with Dad, leaning onto Toothless for comfort from the ache I could still feel, and quickly moved on to my plan to run away, and how scared I'd been when Astrid appeared in the cove.

"You were really going to leave Berk?"

"It was Berk or Toothless," I said, slightly hoarse from talking too much. "My village or my home."

"Berk is your home." She took my hand, and my heart stuttered.

"Fifteen years, Astrid. Fifteen years of expectations and failure. He," I gestured at Toothless, "doesn't care about any of that. He gave my inventions a chance, and guess what? They worked! Not the first time, or even the second, but they worked. When my own father admitted he'd almost given up on me, do you know who cared?"

She opened her mouth, but I couldn't stop.

"Gobber and Toothless. Two people—and I had to choose." Toothless' wing rose up protectively behind me. "I chose him. I'll always choose him.

"So why don't you?"

What was she saying? "Why don't I do what?"

"Why don't you just leave?" Her voice quivered almost imperceptibly. "You have wings. You could leave whenever you wanted."

I'd tried. My shoulders slumped, and I sighed. "The Queen… The dragons are innocent, and they're being forced to raid us against their will. We're the first humans to know this in three hundred years, and if I leave without telling anyone, there'll just be more senseless slaughter. I can't let that happen."

"Then I'll help." Fierce determination lit in her eyes. "Let me try to make up for what the village has done. Let me stop the war with you."

I shook my head, overwhelmed by everything. "Like I said before: I just need more time. I got lucky before when the Nightmare somehow escaped. They'll double security and that won't happen again. I need a plan. Hopefully, it'll take them a while to find another Nightmare, since the dragons can't raid us without Toothless."

"What?"

I sighed, starting to explain again. "Apparently we're better fighters than other tribes. It's too dangerous for them to raid without his cover fire."

Her eyes suddenly focused on something behind me, and I turned to look. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and I frowned. "What is it?"

"It's sunset! I'll be missed—and Mum will be suspicious if we reappear at the same time…"

Shrugging, I settled back against Toothless' flank. "I'll wait for a while. Dad never misses me until the morning anyway. That gives me at least seven and a half hours."

She hesitated, mouth opening slightly, then started picking her way out of the cove. "Bye… I guess."

The moment she was gone, Toothless turned to look at me. 'You need to learn to defend yourself.'

Tired, I whined wordlessly into his shoulder.

'The Queen knows you have a Flame, which makes you a target. I'm sorry, I should never have taken you to the Nest—'

I shook my head to clear the cobwebs, feeling guilt in his Flame through its ever-present contact with mine. I'd gotten so used to it that I hardly felt it anymore, and it was more comforting than anything else.

"It wasn't your fault. What should I do?"

He looked at me with his piercing eyes. 'You have very strong protective instincts. You need to focus those into something you can use.'

"Right." It sounded so simple, but I knew it was anything but easy.

'I'm going to attack you. Try to fend me off.'

"What?!" He withdrew before I could say anything, and I started to panic. "How am I supposed to—"

I cried out, twisting as though I were impaled on a stake, my voice ringing in my ears. Thor—I wasn't ready—stop—Toothless! Falling to my knees, I clutched at my chest and gasped for air, scrabbling against the ground as something dug deeper and deeper into me. Pain exploded into my ribs, slamming a red curtain over my vision, and I arched my back and screamed. The scream suddenly choked off, my mouth snapping shut and my lungs refusing to do what I wanted them to. My legs twisted, pushing me to my feet, and my hand reached for my belt, pulling out a small dagger. To my growing horror, I started stumbling toward Toothless, the blade open and exposed.

I strained against my useless muscles, panicking as I drew closer. Surely he wouldn't make me hurt him? There was a growing doubt in my mind. Was it really Toothless in my limbs? It could have been anything else, a stray Nightmare, or even the Queen. He stared at me, fear in his eyes, and shrank back. I was sure something was wrong by now, but I couldn't do anything! My legs and hands belonged to someone else. I needed to kick them out, whoever they were.

"Turn over." My voice didn't sound quite right, like I was speaking a foreign language. Shaking, Toothless obeyed, exposing his velvety underside. He was either an excellent actor or genuinely scared. I wanted to sob, seeing how vulnerable he was before me. Come on, fight back! I don't want to hurt you!

It was nearly impossible to calm down enough to find my Flame, but I imagined I was taking deep breaths and eventually sank into it. There was a raging Flame surrounding me, stabbing into my limbs and tugging my muscles like I was a puppet with strings, and I shuddered. What had I done in the Nest? Last time had been easier, I'd only focused on protecting Toothless while he dealt with the other dragons. I needed—I needed—

The blade of the knife was resting on his scales, and he still didn't do anything. I focused my entire Flame on my left hand, scrabbling at the immovable enemy, desperately fighting for more time. Thor, Toothless would have reacted so much faster. He wouldn't have given the tendrils a chance. I longed to be like him, able to swipe and cut with my claws, to bite and shatter with my teeth, to melt and burn with my fire. I almost didn't notice as my opponent flinched, pulling back before my Flame that was attacking with a ferocity I didn't think possible.

My fingers fluttered open and the knife fell to the ground. The Flame retreated and my knees gave out as I fell to the ground, sobbing. My arms shook, barely able to stop me from face-planting on the ground, and I snatched the knife up, throwing it as far as I could. It landed on the shore of the lake, almost but not quite falling into the water.

'Hiccup?'

I stood up, trembling, and instantly fell over again.

"Thor—I almost—bud—what—why—" My words tumbled over each other in a terrified shaken mess.

He shifted his wing slightly, covering me. 'That's what could happen. That's why you need to learn how to defend yourself.'

"That was you?! I thought—I thought it might have been—"

'No, we're still safe here.'

"You scared me so much! Don't ever do that again!"

He looked away guiltily. 'You need to know how serious this could be.'

"How do I defend myself?" I never wanted to watch my arms do something like that again.

'What you did now was quite effective,' he said. 'Using my own claws and fire against me.'

I winced. "Sorry."

'Don't be sorry! You're learning, and that's good.' He gently tipped me back onto my feet. 'Another thing, Flames are only effective so far. Distance is your friend if you're only trying to defend.'

I nodded, taking a deep breath.

'Ready to go again?'

I flinched. "What? No, bud, I can't—"

'You need practice.'

I sighed, hanging my head in defeat. I'd do anything if it would prevent me from hurting those dearest to me. "Fine."

oOoOo

Yawning, I tagged along behind everyone else as we hiked through the woods. There'd been a Timberjack sighting on the other side of Berk, and Gobber was taking the five of us to see it. Astrid marched by his side, asking questions about some of the rarer dragons, Snotlout trailed after her, and the twins bickered in front of me. I ran my hand along some of the branches, watching them spring back into place one after another.

"Thanks, Gobber." Astrid disengaged from the conversation and slowed a little, letting Snotlout and the twins catch up with her. Strategically keeping the twins between her and Snotlout, she hung back until she was next to me. "Any new ideas?"

I shook my head. "I can see two options, run away or try to show Dad the truth. Both really bad ideas."

"How about showing the entire village?"

"That's even worse!"

"No, you could tame the Nightmare! They'll have to listen to you then."

"That doesn't sound very smart." I yawned again, exhausted from duelling with Toothless for half the night. He said I was improving, but I couldn't tell the difference. I wearily sank into my Flame and shoved him away again. As 'practise' I had to be able to tell when he was sneaking closer and push him back to the right place. It was tiring, but if I could properly defend myself next time I met the Queen, it would be worth it. As a follow up, I half heartedly tried to crawl along his Flame and attack him. I was even worse at that; attacking simply wasn't in my nature.

Go away, he growled. You're not welcome here.

What?He'd never said anything like that before.

Only just noticing I was there, he flinched fearfully. Hiccup, don't come back to the cove this afternoon.

Why not?

Just don't, okay? Dragon business.

His words made sense—or they would have, if there wasn't such a deep sense of alarm and panic accompanying them.

Bud, what's—

I have to go!He pulled away and I snapped back into my own body, trapped by my Flame's limitations.

"What's wrong?"

I turned to Astrid with wide eyes. "I think—"

She blanched, gripping my hand tightly as a Night Fury screech whispered through the forest, quiet and barely audible.

"Did that sound angry?"

"Scared," I corrected, barely stopping myself from dashing off into the trees. I couldn't leave without making everyone suspicious, but I couldn't stay away, no matter what Toothless had said. "Cover me?"

She nodded, suddenly walking faster and swinging her hips. Fluttering her eyelashes, she skillfully drew Snotlout over to her. I waited for a moment, wondering what she was doing. Talking in low, honeyed tones, she waited for Snotlout to do something stupid. I held my breath, watching as his hand slowly rested on her waist. Astrid suddenly screamed and grabbed his wrist, flipping him through the air to the astonishment of everyone.

"How dare you!"

My poor cousin was completely confused. "But—"

Astrid started throwing punches, and Snotlout blindly defended himself, still sputtering.

Gobber turned around and started trying to break them up, grabbing her wrists and pulling her away from Snotlout. She turned slightly, blew her hair out of her eyes, and winked at me.

I blinked, remembering what I was supposed to do, and turned and ran, dodging between trees and over tree roots, stumbling occasionally but not falling, until I was out of sight of the path. I glanced at the sun, pulling up my mental map, and guessed which direction the cove was in. I didn't think it would be a good idea to charge into the cove blindly, so when I found myself on the wrong side of the cove with a sheer drop between me and Toothless, I resigned myself to watching from there.

There were a few handy trees; tall, thick and concealing pines with branches that swept all the way to the ground with a pleasant outdoorsy smell. I ducked under a tent-like canopy and pulled some of the branches apart to peer down into the cove. There was no such thing as too much caution when it came to something that could scare a Night Fury.

There were five dragons in the clearing: Toothless with his ebony scales; a red Monstrous Nightmare; two Gronckles, one green and the other blue; and a purple Nadder. Head low and tail swishing nervously, Toothless was backed into one corner, bending submissively. The other dragons hemmed him in, slowly stalking forward. The Nightmare took a sudden step forward, and they all laughed as Toothless flinched backwards like he'd been struck.

The Nadder casually flicked their tail, sending a spine into the ground right next to him, and he jumped. Come on, bud, I mouthed. You can take them easily.

They were completely silent, but that somehow only made it creepier. When it happened, it was quick. The Nightmare darted forward, slashed its claws across his leg, and I let out a small cry as the Nightmare pulled back again to watch Toothless' reaction. Apart from a small hiss, he seemed made out of stone. I leaned against the pine needles, sighing with relief that he wasn't seriously injured. They bent before me, and I fell out of the cover for a moment. The Nadder's eyes met mine, and I scrambled back into the shade, heart pounding.

A few moments of silence, except for the breath whooshing in my lungs.

A sharp spine sliced through the branches, and stopped, quivering in the bark of the trunk, millimetres from my head. I didn't make a sound, biting hard on my lip to keep the yell of surprise inside. The dragons started talking for the first time, questioning chatters and gurgles, and I dared to peak outside again. The Nadder was gesturing at my hiding place with its tail, the Nightmare doing most of the questioning.

They came to a conclusion and made a collective call, obviously trying to coax me out. I pressed closer to the tree trunk and wished I could get away without being seen or abandoning Toothless. A glob of fire suddenly landed on the tree behind me, setting the branches alight instantly. The Nightmare lowered its head smugly as I scrambled out, my cover now a death trap. Toothless' eyes met mine, horrified and scared for me, and I winced guiltily.

What did you scorching think you were doing?!

I hunched my shoulders in shame. I'd messed up big time. The Nadder flicked her tail again and a spine flew toward me faster than I could follow with my eyes, straight for my chest. A purple explosion knocked it aside, Toothless aiming perfectly, but the resulting shockwave sent my feet from under me, and I lost my balance and started falling with a short cry of shock.

The cliff was steep but I crashed into protruding rocks as I fell, knocking the wind out of me, and the world spun for a few moments even after I landed hard on the ground.

'Ugh, just a stupid fur-stealer,' the Nadder noted, and I instantly knew it was male.

'Let's dispose of it and get on with our business,' the Nightmare said, flicking his head irritably.

The green Gronckle cocked its head. 'Why did Betrayer protect it?'

'Who cares?' the blue Gronckle grouched. 'Just kill it, sister.'

The green Gronckle sighed wearily, and the noise of a dragon charging its fire filled the clearing. Still breathless, I instinctively ducked behind my arms and curled up, trying to present a smaller target. A black blur slammed into the Gronckle, knocking it aside and wasting the shot, and a familiar body stood over me protectively, wings spread aggressively this time.

There was a second of shocked silence.

'You've got a pet!' the green Gronckle laughed. 'How sweet—bored of Terrors?'

'I vote we kill it,' the Nadder commented. 'Fur-stealers are nothing but trouble.'

'Finally found someone who cares?' the Nightmare scoffed. 'He won't last long.'

Toothless growled, sinking lower and ready to pounce. 'Go away.'

'No,' the Nightmare, obviously the leader, said. 'Do you know how long we've waited for this? And there are others too, others who'd love to catch up with you away from her royal majesty the cannibal.'

'Then let the fur-stealer go free.'

'I don't think so. You obviously care for him, so killing him would be justified, don't you think?'

'He's innocent!'

The Nadder rounded on us angrily. 'What do you care about innocence?!' He leapt forward, spraying a jet of fire straight at me. I cowered, helpless, but a wing flicked down and blocked the spray.

The Gronckles moved in next, two sisters slamming into him one after the other, but Toothless stayed standing. 'You're a strong one. Good. You'll have to be,' the green Gronckle commented.

The Nightmare stepped forwards, and Toothless snarled. 'I know I deserve this. But the fur-stealer must go free!'

'Sorry, Betrayer,' the Nightmare said casually. 'Treat others as you wish to be treated. Now, let's see how you've treated us.'

The Gronckles moved in for another strike. 'Five of our siblings are dead, because of you!' They moved in sync, spinning anticlockwise and slamming their heavily armoured tails into his side with a nasty crunch. Pain flared in my ribs as Toothless flew sideways, landing in a crouch a few metres away. The Nadder smirked, flicking his tail, and I rolled sideways just in time to avoid another spine. The Gronckles advanced again. 'They were last year's hatchlings, and you were teaching them to fly after she ate our parents—'

'—they loved it. We never heard anything but Prince this or Prince that. We thought you might have changed—'

'—then they started being curious about what was outside the Nest. We told them it was forbidden, but they were confident you'd let them—'

'—we found their corpses the next day.'

My brain momentarily shut down, unable to connect the gruesome story with what I knew of my compassionate Night Fury. He couldn't have done that… right? While they hurled their story at him, the sister who was talking stood back, and the other one slammed her tail into him at random occasions. He stood there and took it, silent except for a pained grunt when a tail caught him in the ribs again.

The Nightmare stepped forward next. 'My mate and I trusted you. You knew we wanted to escape the Nest, and we'd planned to leave before she had to lay our eggs. My beautiful Hono…' He whimpered, slicing his sharp claws across Toothless' flank. 'You were there, in the gap we were going to leave from. You stood aside to let us through then attacked us from behind. She didn't stand a chance.' He slashed another cut across Toothless' head, only just missing his eye. 'It was even crueller to let me live. My mate, my unlaid hatchlings… You took everything from me.'

Proudly refusing to whimper, Toothless shifted his weight to accommodate his injuries. I could only stare at him, physically nauseous from the words the strange dragons were spewing.

'Your fur-stealer's less stupid than average, isn't it?' the Nadder commented. 'It almost seems to understand us.'

'No!' Toothless hissed in disbelief, snapping his head to stare at me. I stared back, begging him to deny what they'd just said.

"Tell me—tell me it's not true…"

'Yes, go on,' the Nightmare smirked. 'Tell him.'

He slowly wilted, head hanging and defiance melting away. I'd never seen him look so broken. Standing unsteadily on his three good legs, blood streaking his face from the slash below his eyes, he shook his head and choked, 'I—I can't—'

The Nadder cocked its head and tittered cruelly. 'Shall I tell him my story? Rose's story?'

'No, please, not R—Rose,' he begged, pleading. 'Hit me, cut me, even kill me, but please—'

'We were the ones who found you. My mate and I took you in, fed you, cared for you, and taught you to fly,' the Nadder began.

I didn't want to know, I really didn't want to know, but I couldn't stop listening. 'You loved your older 'sister' and Stormfly loved you too. Then we had another hatchling when you were ten winters old. You wanted to help name her, our little Rose… How old was she again? When you killed her?'

'Th—three—'

'Yes. We came home from raiding one day—you'd gone to a different island—and found the walls painted in her blood. Your scent was mingled in with it, and we thought you might have tried to protect her. But when we followed the trail, you were there, sitting with her limp body clutched in your forepaws, blood on your muzzle. And—and that wasn't even the worst part—' The Nadder swallowed down a whimper. 'You were—you were eating her. Hadn't you done enough?'

I retched, only just stopping my stomach contents from spraying across the ground. Toothless looked at me, his eyes begging me to stay, but I backed away, shaking my head in disbelief. "You—how—why?"

'Hiccup, you don't understand—I can explain—'

I turned my face away, unable to look at him without imagining the awful scenes the dragons had just described. "I thought I knew you. I thought we were friends."

'We are friends,' he insisted, voice breaking. 'I—I—it wasn't my fault—'

"Were you going to eat me, too?"

'No, never!' There was another crunch as the Gronckles swung again, and Toothless yelped in pain. 'That wasn't me! I could never do something like that—'

There was a wet thunk and he screamed, long and agonised. Despite myself, I had to look. There was a Nadder spine embedded in his shoulder, rendering his entire front leg useless, and though he tried to keep it away from me, the pain still oozed in through his Flame.

'Hiccup—please—'

I couldn't take it anymore. Spinning on my heel, I pushed through the dragons who'd been watching our exchange eagerly, and ducked through the small entrance, thoughts catching and tearing in my head. Toothless tried to speak, his Flame writhing against mine, and I roughly shoved him away as hard as I could.

I wanted to never see him again, and at the same time I wanted to sprint back to him and stand up against the dragons together. But how could I, after what he'd done?

This is really becoming a habit...

Sorry?