51. Follow the map

"Where is Hiccup going?" Stoick demanded from Storm.

"To follow a lead," she simply answered and crossed her arms, putting one of her palms on a danger that rested in her armor, on her forearm. She didn't have any other weapons on her, but she didn't need other weapons.

"You!" he pointed at Astrid, "Find him and bring him back!"

"She will do no such thing," Storm calmly disagreed, "All dragons are grounded from now on."

"You can't do that!" Stoick yelled as he took threatening steps towards her.

"Maybe I can't," she agreed then tilted her head to the right where Shadow had approached with a growl, "But he can."

"Are you threatening me?" the Chief asked with narrow eyes.

"You'll learn that I do that quite often and quite well," Storm smirked, "I am willing to answer most of your questions, but as long as I'm on the island, no dragons leaves without my permission."

"Fine," Stoick growled after thinking about it for a few moments and turned around to go back to the village, the few villagers that had come with him followed.

That left only Storm and the gang in the clearing. When she was sure the Chief was out of earshot, she let out all of her frustrations in a scream that startled the gang. She pinched the bridge of her nose trying to quell her anger. Astrid approached her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked softly, Storm gave her a look, Astrid cast her eyes away in embarrassment, "That was a stupid question," she mumbled, "Can you do this?" she asked instead.

"I have no other choice," Storm reminded her with a soft smile, "I'll be okay," she promised.

"It's good to see you again," Eret pipped up, the other's agreeing instantly. Storm felt her heart fill with warmth, but it didn't overtake the worry she felt for Hiccup.

"Come on," Storm said as she threw her arm over Astrid's shoulder, "We have an interrogation to get to."

At first Hiccup blindly flew at the direction Storm had pointed him in. it took a while for him to calm down enough to become aware of his surroundings again. The first thing he noticed were the concerned moans that Toothless emitted almost constantly, next he noticed that they were flying at the Night Fury's top speed.

"Hey," he called softly, petting Toothless' head, "I'm okay bud, you can slow down."

The dragon did so with one last concerned grumble. Hiccup stopped petting him and instead leaned forward, hugging Toothless' head to the best of his ability.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he kept whispering to the dragon for a while, until he felt like the dragons had calmed down.

Hiccup kissed Toothless' head and straightened out, he pulled out the map that Storm gave him. She hadn't lied, the map was re-drawn in a way he could fully understand, and she had even added her own deductions. Island were crossed out, arrows diverted and labeled as old and an empty stop on the map had a question mark circled. So this will be where he headed.

He felt so guilty. So unbelievingly guilty. He dropped the news on his father and fled without an explanation and what's worse was that Storm was probably being question right now. He hadn't even apologized to her! He meant to do that, but with what had gone down, he hadn't. He left her to deal with his mess.

He shouted out his frustration at himself and laid back on Toothless. The dragon grumbled in concern.

"I'm okay bud," he once again comforted as they kept flying.

He stared up at the passing clouds. Toothless had flown them above the clouds, for cover most likely, so no one but Storm knew where they had headed. He kept his eyes up, the passing sky helped clear his mind, he stayed that way for what could have been hours.

The disturbance in the cloud cover was very easy to notice, even from the corner from his eye. He immediately pulled Toothless to a stop, the dragon hovering the best he could, disturbing the clouds even more.

"Storm?" he called out, she was the only one who knew where he could end up.

The dragon that emerged from the cloud cover was definitely not Shadow, and the person atop it was not Storm. Hiccup gasped, he was finally seeing the Dragon Rider, who looked very imposing, but with the profession they shared, that was to be expected. Hiccup followed the circling dragon with his eyes, he just needed for the dragon to stop for a moment so he could talk.

"Hold on, hold on," Hiccup told Toothless as the Dragon Rider came to a stop in front of them. Toothless growled at the Stormcutter that the Dragon Rider was riding. The dragon bellowed back menacingly diverting Hiccup's attention so he didn't notice the dragon that came from behind and pulled him of off Toothless.

"Toothless…!" Hiccup immediately yelled out as he was carried away, the Night Fury plummeting to the iced over ocean below.

The last thing Hiccup saw was Toothless crashing through the ice as he was carried off, Toothless' distressed calls being left behind.

"Hey! We need to go back to my dragon!" he yelled, trying to get the Dragon Rider's attention, "He can't fly without me, he'll drown!"

His pleading well to deaf ears as the Dragon Rider didn't even look at him, the screeching of dragon the only noise. Hiccup fell quiet after he received no answer. His best bet now was getting down and reaching Toothless as soon as he could.

Still, Hiccup couldn't hold in his amazement as he saw the giant ice glacier that was definitely dragon made. He stumbled, but managed to stay upright as the dragon that had taken him released him inside a cave in the glacier.

"We have to head back to my dragon!" he once again tried to reason with the Dragon Rider, but in the dark cave he couldn't even see where the person was.

What he did see was that he was surrounded by a lot of dragons and they didn't seem particularly friendly. One advanced towards him with a snarl, but Hiccup knew what to do. He quickly took inferno and lit in on fire in seconds, moving the blade around himself to get the dragon's attention and familiarize himself to the dragons.

He was startled by a loud dragon sigh from somewhere deeper in the glacier. His startle made the dragons around him break from the trance he had put them in and he was greeted by hisses and snarls once again. He didn't panic, instead he retracted inferno and, changed out the gas pellet, and sprayed the Zippleback gas around himself in a circle in one spin. He crouched down as he ignited the gas.

The dragons around him seemed interested so he approached one of them cautiously, his hand extended in a gesture of trust, a gesture that most dragons respected. His hand didn't meet the willing dragon as a strange noise got Hiccup's attention, making him turn and see the Dragon Rider crouched down, a shield and a strange rattling staff in the person's hands.

"Are you the Dragon Rider?" he asked as the person circled him, he was certain that they were, but checking never hurt. "Where is my dragon? Do you even understand what I'm saying?" he finally asked after receiving no answer.

The person stopped, the sounds from the dragons stopped with them. The Dragon Rider swung their staff and brought it down on the ground hard, a signal of sorts. To Hiccup's relief Toothless was brought to him in the next second. Hiccup didn't care that the Night Fury was completely wet as he ran to the dragons and hugged him close, whispering reassurances to the soaking dragon.

Toothless licked Hiccup's face in happiness, also being relieved when being near Hiccup. The Dragon Rider started rattling the staff in their hands, producing a distinct sound that made the dragons around Hiccup open their jaws and produce low light, bringing a cozier atmosphere to the cave.

Toothless didn't care as he protectively wrapped his tail around Hiccup who stood next to him. the Dragon Rider crouched low as they approached the pair, getting close to Toothless, the person did some weird gesture with their hands. The gesture seemed to calm the Night Fury enough so that the Dragon Rider could extend their hand towards Hiccup's face without fear.

Hiccup found it weird and he leaned back with a frown, turning his head away from the hand, bringing his right cheek to light. The light lit up his whole right side and he heard the Dragon Rider gasp as they hesitantly dropped their hand. They stepped back from Hiccup quickly, giving Hiccup enough space to straighten out.

"Hiccup?" an unmistakably female voice softly asked.

"Uh…" Hiccup let out a confused noise after which the Dragon Rider removed her helmet.

"Could it be?" the woman hopefully asked, "After all these years? How is this possible?"

"Should I… should I know you?" Hiccup asked very confused.

"No," the woman solemnly answered, "You were only a babe… but a mother never forgets."

Hiccup gasped as he took a step back, the words hitting him at once. The Dragon Rider, a sworn enemy of Drago, a story until only recently was his…

"Mom?"