A/N: Apologies for the late hour. I keep forgetting today is Thursday.
The following chapters were written much more recently and, no, I have not finished the final chapters yet. -cue author panicking-
Anyway, who's ready for some more Toothless and dragon-boy Hiccup?
Response to Random Fan: Dagur might be the least confused in this whole fiasco, if nothing else because he thinks he knows what's going on and has no reason to question Hiccup's actions. Hiccup is at least in the right general area, but he's feeling very betrayed and alone. Hopefully Toothless can calm him down...
Hiccup was not happy. And he wouldn't stop squirming!
Toothless had seen Hiccup lock his tailfin enough times to figure it out himself. He could fly alone, but he was a bit unsteady and slow on the turns. Carrying a thrashing Hiccup didn't help.
"Calm, Hiccup," Toothless urged as he struggled for land.
"Trick! Fight!" Hiccup shrieked.
Toothless rumbled and flapped higher as they approached the Edge. He glided over the trees until he found a small clearing and landed heavily on his hind paws.
Toothless released Hiccup. "Safe."
Hiccup scrambled away. He was clearly trying to run, but stumbled and fell on his side. Toothless rumbled and stepped forward, but Hiccup rolled away and snarled.
"Hiccup. Toothless friend," Toothless said.
"Enemy! Trick!" Hiccup growled.
"Friend."
"Bad!"
Toothless huffed, wondering why Hiccup was in such a bad mood. Even if he was talking and acting like a dragon, why was he so suspicious?
Hiccup leaped off to the side. Toothless snagged him with his tail, easily stopping his "escape." Hiccup roared angrily and bit Toothless' tail.
"Hiccup, stop," Toothless said irritably, shaking off Hiccup.
Hiccup swiped a hand at him and attacked the tail again. Maybe he was hungry? The Riders got grumpy when they were hungry, and it was the same for dragons. Offering food was a good way to calm down dragons, too. Even a human who thought he was a dragon, hopefully.
Toothless crooned and coiled his tail around Hiccup, who yelped and renewed his "attack" on the tail. Toothless ignored him and plodded through the dark forest until he found a stream.
"Hungry?" Toothless asked.
"No," Hiccup grumbled.
"Dragons always hungry," Toothless said, then set to the task of fishing.
It didn't take long for Toothless to catch a couple fish. He grumbled when he realized that he couldn't cook the fish like Hiccup always preferred, but maybe his dragon-minded Rider wouldn't mind.
Hiccup, meanwhile, had given up fighting when it became clear that he wasn't going to get away. Toothless' hold was firm, and nothing Hiccup did hurt Toothless.
Toothless released Hiccup, then scooped him back with his tail when Hiccup tried to bolt. Hiccup lost his balance and flopped to the ground with a yelp. Toothless took advantage of his temporary distraction to push a fish into Hiccup's face.
Hiccup didn't seem to notice the fish until a flailing hand touched it. He yelped and jerked back, then crept forward. After a good deal of sniffing and prodding, Hiccup finally nibbled at the fish.
Toothless nodded and gulped down the other fish. He looked up at the sky through the trees, wondering how Hiccup would respond to being returned to the other Riders.
Hiccup coughed and spat out a mouthful of fish. Pawing at his mouth with one hand, Hiccup pushed away the gnawed fish with the other.
"Bad," Hiccup grumbled. He coughed again, making Toothless coo in worry.
"Hiccup okay?" Toothless asked.
Hiccup growled and laid on the ground. He curled into a tight ball, holding his head. Toothless crooned, remembering Hiccup's injury earlier in the day. Hiccup growled at the sympathy, and waved a hand wearily when Toothless leaned to look at Hiccup's head.
"Hurt. Need help," Toothless said.
"Need flock."
"Rider flock?"
"Spike-Flinger flock."
Toothless huffed a breath in Hiccup's face, ruffling his mussed hair. Hiccup growled, but it wasn't as vehement as before. He was moving slower, too, and blinking heavily.
Toothless churred in realization. Hiccup was just tired! No wonder he didn't want to listen! Well, that Toothless could handle.
Toothless scooped Hiccup up with his fore-paws, ignoring Hiccup's protesting squawk. He flopped onto his side and held Hiccup against his warm stomach, then wrapped his wings around his body and Rider.
Hiccup didn't appreciate Toothless' move, as he showed in growls, bites that were harmless, and constant squirming.
Toothless didn't react to Hiccup's protests, only laid quietly and calmly. Gradually, Hiccup's motions slowed until he was laying limp in Toothless' grip. Toothless peeked under his wings, smiling gummily when he saw Hiccup had fallen asleep. Satisfied, Toothless laid his head down.
After a moment, Toothless raised his head and readjusted Hiccup. Delicately, Toothless grabbed the rope holding Hiccup's fake paw in place. It was loose from his wild day and Toothless was able to pull the rope off easily. Toothless then carefully worked his metal paw free and dropped it on the ground.
Just in case Hiccup tried to run again. Toothless was getting a little tired of chasing after his Rider.
No offense to Toothless, but Stormfly was much better suited to finding a runaway Hiccup. Being a Tracker Class dragon, Stormfly found Toothless' scent in no time.
Leaving behind the half-burnt fleet and a threat-yelling Dagur, Astrid squinted into the darkness. It had taken the Riders a bit to regroup and escape the Hunters, plus Astrid had wanted to ensure the fleet was damaged enough to discourage them from following the Riders back to the Edge.
Astrid was relieved when Stormfly followed Toothless' trail to the forest. As nice as it would have been for Toothless to bring Hiccup right to the Edge, at least he wasn't letting Hiccup go back to the Edge Nadders!
Eventually, the dragons pulled into a hover over the trees. Stormfly squawked a couple times, and received a low roar in response.
Astrid eyed the dense treetops. "Stormfly, find a clear spot to land, then we can walk."
Stormfly squawked, then the dragons circled until they found a large enough clearing to all land. Astrid was off Stormfly almost before she'd landed, but she hesitated to run into the trees.
"Did you see something, Astrid?" Fishlegs whispered.
"No." Astrid crossed her arms. "But I think we should wait until morning."
"We spent all day tracking him down," Snotlout whined. "Are we really going to give him a chance to run off again?"
"I doubt Toothless will let Hiccup out of his sight again," Fishlegs said.
Astrid waved a hand at the dark woods. "And do you really want to go after Hiccup when you can't see him?"
"Come on, this is Hiccup, what are you so worried about?" Snotlout scoffed.
"If you want to go after him, feel free," Astrid said, mounting Stormfly. "But I don't feel like wrestling an angry dragon."
"Toothless?" Snotlout asked.
"No, Hiccup."
"But Hiccup's not a dragon."
"Maybe, but he acts like one. And how did tracking an actual dragon in a dark forest go for you last time?" Astrid raised an eyebrow.
Snotlout grumbled and rubbed his nose. Astrid remembered the bites and scratches he'd returned with, not to mention his nasally speech for a week after.
Astrid turned Stormfly, then paused. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut…"
The twins and their dragon, holding a long rope they must have snatched from a Hunter's ship between them, blinked up at her. Ruffnut tried to hide the rope behind her, but it didn't go so well since she was in the middle of the line.
"What are you doing?" Astrid asked with a sigh.
"Standing here. Doing nothing," Tuffnut said.
"Definitely not setting up a trap," Ruffnut added.
The twins twitched when Astrid's axe flew between them, slicing the rope apart. Stormfly stepped forward and nudged the twins apart so she could grab the axe.
"No traps," Astrid ordered shortly. "We're catching Hiccup the way Hiccup catches dragons." Very, very weird thought, but it had been a weird day.
"Hiccup's way is to jump in front of the dragon, do the hand thing, and hope for the best," Snotlout said. Astrid raised an eyebrow at him and waited for that thought to finish. "And I'm not volunteering to do the jumping!"
"I'm not sending you after Hiccup," Astrid said. "We want to catch Hiccup, not scare him off."
"This is a very odd conversation," Fishlegs said.
"What about this day has been normal?" Astrid had to ask.
"Yeah, it's actually been pretty quiet," Tuffnut commented.
Astrid groaned, suddenly very tired. "Let's just… get back to our huts. We leave at dawn to find Hiccup, though."
The fact that neither Snotlout or the twins complained at the early wake-up hinted at the silent worry of the Riders. In fact, it was the quietest flight Astrid could remember with the other Riders.
"Over here!"
Heather pulled back on Windshear's saddle, squinting at the dark waves. When Windshear rumbled and dove, Heather let her take the lead. There was a splash, then Windshear pulled quickly up.
Heather leaned to the side, eyeing the sputtering Hunter now in Windshear's claws. "Are you going to live?"
The Hunter spat out some more water, then wearily nodded. Heather gave a silent sigh of relief and urged Windshear back to the closest ship.
Windshear flew over the ship and dropped the soaked Hunter with the others she'd pulled from the ocean. Heather ran her eyes over the group, then turned Windshear to Dagur's secondary boat -his main boat currently at the bottom of the ocean.
Dagur didn't respond to Windshear's landing on the boat. He was leaning against the railing, staring at the distant lights of the Dragon's Edge.
"I think that's the last of them," Heather said, sliding from Windshear's back. "Fenrick's taking a count now."
"Get everyone on a ship," Dagur said.
His calm voice had Heather stiffening. "They are, Dagur."
"Reorganize the crew in the remaining ships," Dagur clarified. "We need to get moving."
"Okay…" Heather started to turn, but hesitated. "There's no rush. The Riders never bother us after an attack."
"And they've never left us a better opportunity!" Dagur proclaimed, spinning and flinging his arms into the air. "They only sunk two of our ships, and didn't stick around long enough to make sure our other ships sunk as well!"
Heather hid a grimace. It wasn't like Astrid to be so sloppy. Now, Dagur still had most of his fleet and the Riders probably wouldn't be checking on the fleet for a time.
"So, what's the plan?" Heather said, faking a smirk.
"We keep going," Dagur said. "We'll sneak up on them while it's still dark, and take them on in the morning!"
"Oy, Dagur!" Fenrick called from a couple ships over.
"I'm plotting the demise of the Riders, Fenrick, can it wait?" Dagur snapped.
"Er, well, just wanted to let you know all the Hunters were found."
"Even better, we're at full strength!"
Heather looked at the ships, illuminated by torches. Aside from a few Hunters who'd been injured in the battle and Fenrick, nobody else was in sight.
"Where is everyone?" Heather asked.
"In the holds." Fenrick winced. "That Gronkle blasted holes in three of our ships."
"What?!" Dagur shrieked. "How am I supposed to pull off a full-scale invasion with only three ships?"
"We'd better head back to home base," Heather said, silently adding, "And hope all the damaged ships make it."
"No, no, not doing it. I'm not running back to Viggo with my tail between my legs, half a fleet, and no dragons!" Dagur fumed.
"We can't take anything on with three damaged ships," Heather reasoned. "What else can we do?"
"We use the darkness to sneak around the back of the island," Dagur said, turning back to the railing. "We can hide until the ships are fixed, then we attack."
Heather rolled her eyes to the sky, but managed an upbeat, "They'll never even see us coming!"
"Exactly! Get a move on!" Dagur bellowed over his shoulder. "We don't have long before dawn!"
Heather glanced at Windshear and grimaced. Now what?