The Timberjacks had landed on a tall island, composed mostly of impossible-to-climb cliffs far above sea level with a series of thick forests and open lakes of varying altitude, streaming down into each other in a glorious web.

Berk was not so far away now.

Hiccup sat with his back against the trunk of one such tree, facing a stream where they were fishing with Moon-guider, watching the taller tree branches as the dragons' large, sharp wings nearly sliced them off.

"This is a nice island, but I wouldn't want to live here," he commented to himself, his voice thin.

Moon snapped her face into the water and came up with a salmon, which she swallowed whole. She went back to searching the water for fish as the Timberjacks snapped up other options. Finally she caught another and held it in her teeth as she turned back towards Hiccup. She had already tried sharing with him the way that dragons did back in the waterfall caves of the Hidden World and discovered to her chagrin that he preferred not to. It must be a human thing. So instead, she put it by his head and nudged it towards him, breathing fire onto the ground so that he could heat it up.

She sat back on her haunches to watch the Alpha's human's food ritual. Stab it with his long metal tooth and hold it over the fire. She crouched and carefully spit a little more fire under it.

He was looking pale. And his wound didn't smell good. They needed to get going again soon. Moon-guider hoped wherever they were going could heal him. It wasn't long now to where they had met.

"He wouldn't kill Toothless now," Hiccup said, mostly to himself. "He likes to gloat too much. He wants to prove that he's right. He told me he would kill him to show me that my world would never work without the Alpha under my influence, so he's going to kill him in front of Berk." He looked at Moon-guider. "So there's still time. There's probably still time."

—

They left again at midday, without the Timberjacks. The sharp pain of the open wound in Hiccup's side—no exit wound, he had noticed—had spread to become a prevalent ache in the rest of his torso too. He had been cleaning it to the best of his ability, first with the waterfall water and then cauterizing it, and then washing again after the dragons had fished in the stream. But he didn't know herbs well enough to know what to look for while they were on the ground, for pain or infection.

The clouds ahead looked like rain, but the Light Fury forged on without caring, feeling with her wings for the right wind to soar with. Hiccup looked twice at them, but even wounded he was the greatest Dragon Rider in the world. And they were, at least, far enough away for them not to be too great a worry at the time. With the right wind, they might move out of their way before they even got to that point.

—

The Twins and Barf and Belch had been sent again to spy on the Warlords. They had done a good enough job last time, after all, that Astrid trusted them with it again. It had only been a few days since their visit to Berk, and the ships had not come back, but she knew they would not wait forever for her answer.

They were lying on their stomachs, staring down the edge of the canyon, and keeping count of how many things they saw from the Warlords' army that would be easier with the help of dragons, competing to find.

"Lighting fires."

"Lifting boxes."

"Carry—"

"Carrying boxes—I said it first!"

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Stop stealing my—"

"Come up with your own ideas—"

"Repairing weapons. That's five for me and four for you, even though you stole one of mine."

"Did not. Making armor. Transporting supplies from one ship to another."

"That's the same one as carrying boxes. You already said that one."

"Uh, uh, no, it's not the same. Look at that one, he's carrying logs from his ship to—well, I don't know where he's going, but he left that one on the far right. That's six for me."

"Cutting down trees. Six for me, too."

"Uh, sure, maybe if you want the end of it burnt. That would ruin it, no one wants burnt logs to build ships with."

"Wouldn't matter, if you still had enough of the rest of it. Just cut off the burnt part." With this, Tuffnut picked his nose triumphantly and flicked the results out over the canyon to land on some poor soul in the Warlords' army.

Ruffnut argued back, "Five for you because that would still be the same amount of effort; you still have to cut through the tree trunk either way."

"Burnt wood is easier to—actually, no, you know what? Timberjacks. Trees wouldn't be burnt at all. Six for me."

"Since when did you read the Dragon Manual?"

"What, I've always read the Dragon Manual for…stuff!"

"You have not. I'd have seen you."

"I did it when you weren't around."

"You don't read that fast. Or fast at all."

Tuffnut shoved her. "And how do you know it's in the Dragon Manual if you didn't read the Dragon Manual either?"

"Uh, I have ears. People talk about…stuff. And hey, what is that?"

"What's what?"

Ruffnut pointed so far to their right that Tuffnut had to roll onto his side to look at what she meant. A pale dot was moving through the sky towards the Warlords' armies.

"That's not one of theirs, is it?"

"No, idiot, that's a dragon," Tuffnut scoffed, standing up and stepping back from the edge. "What kinds of dragons are white?"

"The kind Astrid and Eret saw, I guess?"

They looked at the armies. The white dot was bigger now, big enough so that they could make out its wings. It was traveling diagonally to them, and headed for right over the dragon-trapping ships of the armies.

"It's gonna get caught," they said in unison, and jumped to action.

"Get up, Barf!"

"Come on, Belch!"

The Twins leapt onto their dragons' heads' saddles and the Zippleback took off, flying towards the white-looking dragon. Behind them, a henchman's eyes widened as he looked up at the sky, the dragon's underbelly illuminated by the fires on the beach. He ran to inform his masters.

Barf and Belch headed a course to intercept the dragon, and as they drew closer it saw them and snarled defensively. But it was carrying something darker on its back.

"Is that the…what did they call it. Light Fury?" Tuffnut called to his sister.

"Is that Hiccup?" Ruffnut asked.

As they approached, Hiccup saw them, raising the visor on his helmet to see them. He raised a hand and waved.

"Hey!" the Twins both yelled as Barf and Belch dodged under the Light Fury carrying their Chief and friend. The Light Fury flapped further up as the serpentine dragon swooped under her and roared at it in indignant confusion. Who was this?

On Hiccup's right now, the Twins caught sight of his ripped armor, even in the dark.

"Hey, Hiccup, you don't look so good."

"Yeah, and where's Toothless?"

"Long story," Hiccup's voice broke. "I need to get back to Berk. I sort of got stabbed."

"WHAT."

"Then why are you headed right for the Warlords' army?"

As Ruffnut called this to him, they flew over the canyon that had shielded their view from the Warlords, into view of the mass of ships.

"What?" Hiccup muttered to himself. "This isn't where they were last time?"

"Oh, they moved," Tuffnut said.

"Astrid said the same thing. They used to be on the other side of this island, or something."

"Hey, uh, Berk's that way, and—WATCH OUT!"

Tuffnut jerked Belch's head back just in time to avoid a bola and the dragon squawked angrily.

Moon-guider screamed and dodged under another weighted net that was shot at them. Hiccup barely ducked in time and put his hand by Moon's head. "Moon! We gotta go that way," Hiccup said, flicking his visor down again, and the Light Fury turned them the way he pointed. Barf and Belch wheeled in the air as more and more traps were shot from the ships. Several had lifted anchor and were already chasing.

"Man, I used to think I was clever," Hiccup muttered as he spotted a net coming at them from the side and steered Moon just out of its reach. "Coming up with things to throw weapons."

"Yeah, Hiccup, these guys are like WAY better at that," Tuffnut said, just before they heard a screech from Ruffnut. Barf's head and she were both tangled in in a net that the dragon had just plowed through.

"Oh, nice," Tuffnut oozed sarcasm.

"Shut up!" She got out a small knife and began to cut herself out. Barf rattled irritably.

"Ruff, careful!" Hiccup yelled. She cut the wrong rope and shrieked, suddenly hanging on by one hand to the saddle. Barf's head was pulled sideways off balance and the Zippleback's flight followed it, tipping mid air.

Hiccup let out a sigh of frustration and maneuvered Moon-guider around so that they could get under Ruffnut.

Before they could, the dragon ran again into a trap. The net caught Ruffnut's legs and she lost her grip, dropping into a free-fall with her feet tangled in weighted rope.

"RUFFNUT!" Hiccup yelled, and Moon, sensing his alarm, dove to catch her. She was falling towards a ship as it moved under them.

Moon-guider caught Ruffnut under her chest as Hiccup looked up to check that Tuffnut was still flying. The net coming from behind him caught his eye at the last second, and Moon screamed as it hit them, pinning the wounded Hiccup down and covering her wings.

They careened towards the ocean and she dropped Ruffnut into it before she and Hiccup crash-landed a mere meter away. The ship was coming straight for them.

Wings flapping against the net and the ocean, Moon-guider floundered to stay above the waves, bellowing frantically. Hiccup, trapped against her, managed to unsheathe his sword and cut his way through some of the net, lifting it off of the Light Fury's face as Ruffnut did her best to swim towards them.

Another net unsheathed off of the side of the boat to scoop them from the surf and Ruffnut was caught against it first, spluttering as it drove past them. Then Hiccup and Moon-guider, already half-free from the first net, were shoved up against her, and they were lifted from the water.

"Ugh," Ruffnut grunted, "Tell your new dragon to get its elbow out of my stomach."

"She's not my new dragon," Hiccup snapped. Moon-guider writhed in the soaked net as they were hefted over the ship's railing, pushing the humans painfully against the net, and then they were lowered in a heap onto the deck. Ruffnut's complaints were muffled by the Light Fury's wing shoulder.

Hiccup yelled out in pain as she pushed on his wound and she froze, struggling to look at him.

Two huge, barrel-chested guards opened the top of the net— "Let's see, boys, what have we here?" —and grabbed Moon-guider by the neck, forcing her face into a muzzle and metal neck-trap shackle with a chain attached to its throat. Three men the same size held the other end of the chain and pulled her forward. She stumbled, stunned, out of the net, and once the dragon was held down, being led into her cage, the rest of the net fell open.

"Don't hurt her!" Hiccup yelled, and Moon briefly fought to get back to him.

"Well, no more dragons after all," said one man, forcefully removing their scaled flying helmets. "Looks like we've caught some Berkian Dragon Riders for Griselda. She'll be pleased to know she at least has their attention."

"Some Dragon Riders?" Ruffnut scoffed, unimpressed, getting to her feet. "Only the best Dragon Rider on Berk. And the Chief."

"The Chief of Berk himself?" the man repeated, and Hiccup shot a glare at Ruffnut, still on his knees clutching his side. "The Night Fury Whisperer? Well, well, well. I must say, I expected a little more." He chuckled to the rest of the men as the ship swayed to one side, turning back to the rest of the fleet. "He's looking a little worse for wear. What's wrong with your side, boy?"

Hiccup tried to get to his feet and fell back again with a sharp inhale, wincing.

"Oh, well," said the man. "Isn't life full of disappointments. Get them into their cage and tell Doc to come look at him, whenever she has a free moment."