Author's Note: *Runs into room* Hello, hello! Sorry for a bit of a late chapter! My family and I went out to pick up food. X) The lateness shall not continue! NOT ON MY WATCH! XD
Also, thanks for the six follows on this story! I'm super glad you guys are enjoy this story! =D
Anyway, here's chapter thirrteeen! I hope ya'll enjoy it. =D
Chapter Thirteen: And So the Hunt Continues
Hiccup groaned when felt something slimy run down his throat. He nearly coughed it back up but was stopped by a comforting hand that squeezed his.
"Swallow it, Hiccup," came a soft voice. "You need it so you can get better."
Hiccup cracked his eyes open and was face to face with blue eyes and blonde hair. Hiccup blinked owlishly.
"Are you a Valkyrie?" he asked. Hiccup blinked again. "Am I in Valhalla? Did I die?"
"Welp, Hiccup's gone out to lunch," said Ruffnut. "I guess that means I'm in charge now."
"Why you?" asked Tuffnut. "Clearly I'm the smart one."
"No way," Ruffnut said. "You're Tuff, I'm Ruff, meaning I'm rougher and have more intellectual capacity than you."
"What does being rough have to do with intelligence?" asked Snotlout.
"It has everything to do with intelligence," said Ruffnut. "And I can be philosophical as well. Remember when I said that competition is the very essence of life itself?"
"That was actually pretty intelligent sounding…" said Snotlout.
Tuffnut gawked at Snotlout. "Are you siding with her?"
"I'm not siding with any of you," said Snotlout. "We'd get killed if you were put in charge. Did you forget the fall of Thorstonton?"
"Yeah, but that was Tuffnut's fault," said Ruffnut.
"It wasn't!" shouted Tuffnut.
"Yes it was! You were the one who came up with all of the stupid rules!"
"You read them out loud!"
"Did I?"
Astrid turned to the trio. "Can you guys just shut up?"
Snotlout raised his hands innocently. "I didn't even say anything."
Hiccup rolled his head to face Astrid. "W-What happened?"
"You passed out," explained Astrid. "But luckily, you didn't pass out because of Inyitis."
"Yep. It was actually Fishlegs who had it," said Tuffnut. "I sent him home for you."
"Uh, no you didn't. I told him to go home," Ruffnut said as she glared at her brother.
"Oh my Thor, I told him to go home!" said Astrid exasperatedly.
"Oh, right," said Tuffnut.
"See? I told you Astrid sent him home," Ruffnut said. Tuffnut opened his mouth to say something but Astrid filled in the brief silence first.
"You three go get some more firewood," said Astrid. When no one moved, she added strictly, "Now."
The twins and Snotlout nodded and ran off into the dark woods. Something screeched and Astrid guessed that Snotlout had seen another squirrel when she heard the twins' laughter afterward. She turned to Hiccup who looked like he was about to pass out again. Astrid shook him lightly.
"Hey, stay with me, Dragon Boy," said Astrid. "You need to stay awake for a bit while the medicine does its work."
"Medicine? But I thought you said I wasn't sick," said Hiccup, perplexed.
"You aren't sick, but the nuts you collected were poisonous," said Astrid. "Fishlegs forgot to tell us that firtrest trees inject poison into their nuts so when touched by human hands that person will feel dizzy and eventually pass out and feel sick for a while."
"That explains the dizziness I experienced after I touched them," said Hiccup. "Where are they?"
"I put them in a bag using a cloth," said Astrid. "And that stuff I gave you earlier was the medicine, but you have to stay up for ten minutes before you can fall asleep so it can work."
"Oh…" said Hiccup. He was so tired. Hiccup almost fell asleep again but Toothless licked him just in time.
"Ew..ew! Toothless!" cried Hiccup in surprise.
"Hey, at least he's keeping you awake," laughed Astrid. Hiccup glared at his dragon who had an innocent look on his face.
"I swear, I won't give you any extra fish when we go home if you continue to do that," said Hiccup. Toothless shrugged and wrapped himself around Hiccup and promptly fell asleep. Hiccup yawned.
"Has it been ten minutes yet?" asked Hiccup.
Astrid shook her head. "Nope."
Hiccup rubbed at his eyes. "How about now?"
"No," said Astrid.
"Now?"
"No."
"Okay, how about...now?"
"Hiccup!"
"Sorry, sorry," said Hiccup. He yawned again. "I'm just really tired…"
Astrid nodded understandingly, and then an idea sparked in her head. "Hey, how about we play a game? Just to keep you awake."
"It depends on what type of game," said Hiccup.
"How about I spy?"
"No."
"Thumb war?"
"I can barely move the rest of my body."
"Rock, paper, scissors?"
"I lost the championship we had two years ago."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Hiccup! I'm trying to help you!"
Hiccup didn't respond. His eyes began to close once again but Astrid punched his arm.
"OW!" cried Hiccup. Toothless and Stomfly's heads snapped up at the sudden shout. When they realized it was just Hiccup, they huffed and went back to sleep.
"I didn't even punch you that hard," said Astrid.
"Yes you did!" Hiccup said back as he rubbed his sore arm. "You're supposed to be helping me get better, not giving me more pain!"
Astrid shrugged. "Well, what do you want to do? I don't suppose you have something that you want to do to keep you up for eight minutes?"
"We could keep arguing," said Hiccup sarcastically.
"Yeah, right," said Astrid. She thought for a moment. "How about trivia?"
"Trivia?" said Hiccup. "You're not going to get too competitive like you did last time are you?"
The Dragon Riders did a Dragon Trivia every once in a while. Hiccup didn't know why they continued to do them since everyone always got intensely competitive to the point where things got physical. Hiccup couldn't count how many times he had come home with a sore wrist or limping after a trivia match, but it was still fun to do something with his friends.
Astrid smiled. "No, I won't. Besides, it's just between the two of us and we won't be keeping track of points." The Hofferson girl scooched up next to the auburn haired boy. "Ask me a question, starting with the Tracker Class."
"Why Tracker?" asked Hiccup with an impish smile. "I'm the one asking the questions here. What's the fastest speed a Hobblegrunt can go?"
Astrid gasped dramatically. "Stoker Class? You picked my weak spot!"
Hiccup shrugged. 'It's good to always be the judge in trivia matches."
Astrid elbowed him lightly. "Well luckily, Stormfly and I chased down a Hobblegrunt for a family not too long ago. A Hobblegrunt's speed is four."
"That was an easy question," said Hiccup.
"Well too bad, Dragon Boy. It's my turn now," said Astrid. "How much venom does a Flightmare have?"
"Pfft, easy. Ten," said Hiccup.
Astrid smiled. The Hofferson girl stood up and poked at the burned sticks that were stacked into a small tower, causing a few embers to burst out. Hiccup yawned again, but this time, Astrid didn't shake him to stop him from closing his eyes.
"Get some rest," she said. "We can figure out what to do in the morning."
But Hiccup wasn't listening. He was already asleep.
…
The next morning, Hiccup was feeling much better and the Riders were ready to set out once again. They knew they had to hurry since Fishlegs had come down with Inyitis, meaning that each and every one of them probably had the germs on them. The symptoms just hadn't revealed themselves yet.
Hiccup hoped that they would find this last ingredient with no problems at all. He and the others had already been through so much. Finding these tears from a crying dragon shouldn't be so hard…right?
"Anyone know anything about a crying dragon?" asked Hiccup. As he predicted, everyone shook their heads.
"Can dragons even cry?" asked Snotlout. "I mean, all of your dragons probably can cry, but Hookfang is a warrior. He doesn't cry. Just like me."
"But didn't you cry when you drank Astrid's yaknog?" said Ruffnut.
"Those were tears of joy! How many times do I have to tell you that?!" shouted Snotlout. The twins just laughed.
"If we're looking for a crying dragon, we should probably keep an ear out for it," said Astrid. "I have no idea what a crying dragon sounds like, but we'll probably know it when we hear it."
"But we need some kind of info to go off of, and we got nothing," said Hiccup.
It would have been helpful if Fishlegs was there with some sort of information that they could use. The other Riders must have thought the same thing because everyone went silent for a while. Hiccup sighed.
"Why don't we stop at the nearest village and see if we can find any information there?" suggested Astrid.
"Sounds like a plan," said Hiccup. The Riders continued to fly in the direction they were going and eventually came to a small island with several huts built on it. Hiccup and the Riders landed and found that there were dragons around, meaning that the village must have made peace with the reptiles as well. The Dragon Riders walked through the village, making sure to keep their distance from the people, and eventually came to a building that looked library-ish. They entered and were satisfied to find that no one was inside.
"Okay, split up and see what information you can find," said Hiccup. The Riders rummaged through several books about mysterious dragons and found several species that they didn't even know about. Hiccup eventually found a paper that looked informative and called the other Riders over to see.
"What in the world is that?" asked Ruffnut. A quick drawing of the dragon took up almost half of the paper. It looked like a Slitherwing, but with legs and had a sharp tail. Large ear flaps like a Night Fury's protruded from its head. It was completely white with specks of light blue, almost transparent, and had the palest of blue eyes.
"It looks awesome!" said Tuffnut. "May I have it?" Belch snapped his head in Tuffnut's direction, an upset expression on his face.
"What? I can have more than one dragon!" said Tuffnut to his dragon. Belch scoffed and turned away and continued to annoy his other head by sparking in his face.
"It sasy it's called a Lynthear," said Hiccup. "The only dragon in all of dragonkind that can cry."
"Wow, interesting," said Astrid. "What else does it say? Any information about where it comes from?"
"Well it says that Lynthears usually live in secluded places and that's about it," said Hiccup.
"Then how do we find this thing?" asked Snotlout.
"We search through the most secluded places we know," said Astrid.
Hiccup nodded. "And hopefully, we'll come across this thing."
Author's Note: And now we know the dragon's name! Finally! XD
So, will the Riders be able to locate this dragon or not? *Taps fingers in a mysterious way* You'll have to wait and see...
Until the next chapter!
-BeyondTheMoon1203
