They soared through the night, Toothless bringing them through the clouds, and up to that place in the sky where all that can be seen is the boundless stars above and the indistinct sea below, mottled with clouds made silver by the moonlight. They glided there, for a long time.

Hiccup felt no desire to sleep. This view was one he had only rarely seen. He regretted not sneaking away from the village in the middle of the night before. This was amazing.

Toothless was apparently taking them somewhere he knew. Hiccup, apart from keeping track of where they were in relation to Berk, didn't care about the destination. This really was Toothless's trip. Let him decide where they went.

And so the night passed, until in the early hours of the next morning, Toothless set down on a small, relatively nondescript island, a hunk of rock, dirt, and sand in the middle of the ocean.

Hiccup dismounted curiously, looking around to confirm what he had suspected. "This place is lifeless." No animals, no trees, not even any grass.

Toothless chuffed in agreement, curling up into a small ball on the sand, just above where the high tide would likely reach. Despite the fact that it was now almost morning, he seemed to be going to sleep.

Hiccup laughed. "Well, that's one way to relax." He was realizing why Toothless had brought them here. A place no one would ever go, for any reason. No reason except solitude. The exact opposite of the crowded and tense village they had been residing in. With nothing better to do, he leaned against Toothless's side and watched the ocean as the sun rose.

O-O-O-O-O

The next thing he knew, Hiccup was sprawled out on the sand, eyes closed. He sat up groggily, wondering when he had fallen asleep. Toothless, he realized as his vision cleared, was gnawing at...

"Bud, I can take it off if you want." Hiccup recognized this. Toothless would sometimes bite on the base of his tail, where his fin had been, for whatever reason. Always with no teeth, as if to put pressure on it more than anything else.

Toothless looked over with a plaintive expression, his eyes a bit narrower than normal, obviously uncomfortable.

Hiccup quickly removed the tailfin and the saddle for good measure. Once he was done, he examined the tailfin. More specifically, where the...

"What in Thor's name is..." Hiccup's hands moved of their own accord, feeling what he was sure he must be hallucinating. No, it was real. Small sprouts, growing out of what had been a flat strip of tail, where the fin had been shorn off all those weeks ago. They were thin, and he could feel a tiny bit of what might be membrane between them, as thin as a leaf. So small, so fragile. But very clearly new. Growing.

He looked over at Toothless, amazement crossing his features. "It's coming back."

Toothless chuffed, going back to gnawing on his tail. He didn't seem all that excited, though it clearly wasn't an entirely painless process, so he had good reason to be uncomfortable.

This realization, in turn, made Hiccup think back. Toothless had been doing this for weeks, even before the Red Death. And that hadn't been weeks, a fact that still slipped from his mind if he wasn't careful. No, that had been months. This had been going on for months. And only now was there anything visible.

This was going to take a long time, at the rate it was going. Months, years maybe. But it was still happening.

It was growing back. Toothless would eventually be whole again.

There was the briefest flash of envy in Hiccup's mind. His leg wasn't coming back. He stamped that feeling out with vigor as soon as he acknowledged it. This was no time to resent his friend. There was never a time for that.

Instead, he smiled, watching Toothless sooth the discomfort this minor miracle was bringing. "Well, I'd say that's a pretty small price to pay, all things considered."

O-O-O-O-O

Once Toothless had soothed his tail, Hiccup put the flight gear back on. The small growths, now that he knew they were there, made that a bit tricky, but for now they were too small to cause issues. It was a good thing they were going back to Berk after a few weeks. A new tailfin would need to be made, one that accommodated these slowly growing pieces. That was going to be tricky, but Hiccup thought he could do it. However, that was a task for later. His heart was light with the combination of this amazing discovery, and the slowly relaxing dragon he was traveling with.

They took off, and Hiccup once again threw caution to the winds, following Toothless's lead.

O-O-O-O-O

A larger island, this time. One with thick forest and animals. The animals, Hiccup soon learned, were why they were there.

Toothless stalked through the forest, visible from where Hiccup was following, a few dozen feet behind. Once he had understood why they were here, Hiccup had meant to stay on the beach. No need to ruin Toothless's hunt. But Toothless had refused to leave unless Hiccup was following him.

That made Hiccup smile. Sure, some of it was lingering worry and overprotectiveness, but he was pretty sure Toothless had another goal too. It had become obvious fairly quickly.

Toothless looked back at him, before pawing the grass in front of him. He leaned over, sniffing dramatically, before pointing his head off into the forest, eyes leading Hiccup on.

What better way to teach than by example? Toothless was clearly trying to teach Hiccup how to track, to hunt. A large deer, from what Hiccup could tell. He wasn't able to smell it, but the tracks were obvious and fresh.

So he followed his friend deeper into the forest, both creeping as silently as possible, occasionally stopping at some new piece of evidence that they were still on the right path. It took hours, but eventually Toothless happened upon a stream.

Hiccup watched from a good vantage point as Toothless crept up on the large buck that was drinking from the river. Silent. Hidden. Downwind. There was no way that deer even knew what was happening.

Toothless pounced, pinning the deer. Oddly, he didn't immediately kill it. Instead, he made eye contact with Hiccup and then gestured to the panicking animal trapped under his paws.

Hiccup watched in some mix of shock, surprise, and a tiny bit of fear as Toothless very deliberately placed a claw on the deer's stomach, and nodded. The same was done with the flailing legs, and finally the neck.

He was showing Hiccup where to strike. The stomach and neck, the vulnerable parts. The legs, so it couldn't run. Hiccup found the presence of mind to nod.

Toothless grinned, before swiftly snapping the deer's neck, a clean kill. The panicked noises the animal had been making this entire time, those few moments of deliberate instruction, abruptly cut off. The forest was silent. He picked the dead body up in his mouth and began trotting back to the beach, head held high to prevent the deer's dangling limbs from tripping him up.

Hiccup followed, his mind in turmoil. He had always known Toothless was a predator, and while he didn't particularly like hunting...

This was better than how humans did it. The one time his father had taken him hunting, the end had been much more brutal and painful for the animal in question. Because, being manly Vikings, they didn't use bows. Or, Stoick didn't. No, that hunt had been done by ax. He had never known his father was so stealthy. But the sight of a deer being hamstrung and then beheaded had only reinforced the assertion that Stoick as a baby had popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders.

It wasn't the hunt or kill that bothered him. And it wasn't that this bothered him, exactly. It was that Toothless so clearly had indicated exactly what to do, every step of the way. This trip was supposed to be so that Toothless could relax. But Hiccup had a feeling his friend didn't want to relax.

No, his friend wanted to prepare him. Not for anything specific, just to... survive. To be self-sufficient.

So, when Toothless reached the beach, Hiccup assisted him in skinning the carcass, showing the Fury that the skin could be taken off. Toothless didn't seem to understand why it mattered, but he was at least impressed that Hiccup could do what he, with his indelicate claws and teeth, could not. He warbled happily as Hiccup worked.

Hiccup set the raw hide off to the side, knowing it would be valuable anywhere people traded, regardless of whether it was tanned or not, something he definitely didn't have the materials or experience to do here.

After taking a bit for himself, Hiccup set up a fire and tried not to watch too closely as Toothless made the rest of the deer disappear. Ignoring the bones cracking was quite difficult, but he managed.

He could ignore the sounds, but not their implications. "Gods, it's a good thing we're friends." Hiccup spoke to the massive predator happily cracking bones in his jaws. "You guys are terrifying."

Toothless spat out a bone and coughed, before purring at Hiccup.

"See?" Hiccup had given up trying not to look, and Toothless had gotten rid of most of the deer by this point anyway, save for the copious amount of blood on his paws, mouth, and the sand around him. Hiccup gestured at the scene in front of him. "Somehow, I forget that... this is part of you too. No one else does."

Toothless took in Hiccup's face and followed his eyes to the blood. He hastily dug his paws under the sand and warbled sheepishly.

"No, it's not a bad thing." Hiccup smiled. "Just that everyone else sees a vicious monster. I don't." It helped that Vikings weren't the cleanest eaters to start with. This wasn't so bad, by comparison. At least Toothless didn't burp and pick his teeth. The blood was just an unfortunate side effect of the food.

They spent the rest of the evening nearby and slept under the stars on the beach.

O-O-O-O-O

The next morning started abruptly, as Toothless nudged Hiccup awake.

"What is it?" Hiccup stood, making sure that yes, they were still alone, no, there was no imminent threat. With that determined, he flopped back down on the sand. "It's barely dawn."

Toothless, however, would not be deterred. In a series of increasingly annoying pokes and prods, he succeeded in getting Hiccup to admit defeat.

"Fine." Hiccup stood, glaring playfully at the alert and obviously amused Fury in front of him. "What do you want to do now?"

Toothless nodded towards the forest, and then the pelt Hiccup had left out nearby.

"Hunting again?" Hiccup wasn't sure why, but he felt that wasn't it. "Like yesterday?"

That was answered with a chuff and then a growl. Toothless nodded very deliberately at Hiccup, and then at the pelt.

He wasn't sure, but... "You want me to hunt?"

That was it. Toothless barked affirmatively, gesturing for Hiccup to go ahead. Apparently, the roles would be reversed today.

This was new territory for Hiccup. The few times in his life he had gone hunting, it had been to observe. Not do it himself. Well, he might as well try.

O-O-O-O-O

Three hours later, and Hiccup was regretting going along with this. Not that he had been unsuccessful. He had just happened across his quarry, a much less impressive deer compared to the one Toothless had taken down. It was at the bottom of a small valley, nosing around in the bushes. Unaware of the human and dragon within a hundred feet, watching it.

He was regretting this because it felt... cruel. They could just get fish, which while still hunting, somehow felt less violent than this. But looking back at Toothless, who was giving him a 'go ahead' gesture, Hiccup realized that this wasn't just about food. Toothless wanted to see that he was capable of hunting.

He'd probably only have to prove he could do it once though. Hiccup smiled as he realized that. Hopefully, this would work...

He slipped out, pulling a knife from one of the many holsters within reach. Crept towards the deer. And-

Whoops. Stepped on a branch. Hiccup flinched as the crack resounded across the forest, and the deer bolted. Straight towards him, because that was the only way out of the valley. He, at that moment, realized that Toothless wasn't going to move on from this particular lesson if he failed.

"Sorry." Hiccup lashed out with the long knife, cutting a tendon as the deer bounded past, far more dependent on luck than skill.

The deer tumbled to a stop, struggling to stand.

Hiccup stood over it, looking into its eyes. To his relief, there was no horribly familiar spark of resignation, of despair. Just the mindless struggling of a true animal. He didn't know what he'd do if every animal he ever found turned out to be intelligent. Convincing the village of Berk to stop fighting dragons? Hard, but apparently doable. Convincing an island of Vikings to become vegetarians? Impossible.

He quickly and sadly cut its throat, as Toothless had indicated. Hunting would never be his favorite activity. He met Toothless's eyes. "There. You know I can do it. That doesn't mean I like it."

Toothless whined softly at his tone, inclining his head. Hopefully, that message had gotten through, though Toothless certainly acted as though he understood. Together, they took the body back to the beach, and soon Hiccup had another pelt to take with them. They left that island a few hours later, working their way further into the unknown.

O-O-O-O-O

The next few days followed a pattern. Toothless would find an island devoid of anything more dangerous than wild boar, and they would spend the day there. Hiccup was happy to see that now Toothless was embracing the idea of just relaxing and having fun out here. With every passing day, the Fury shed a bit more of the overprotective and stressed persona Hiccup had seen, and returned to his calmer and yet somehow more energetic self, free from paranoia.

That wasn't to say the relaxing was done only by Toothless. Hiccup realized, over those days, that he had been stressed too, if not for the same reasons. Apparently, being surrounded by people who were suddenly treating him like a hero after fifteen years of the opposite got a person a bit wound up.

The total isolation acted as a reset of sorts. No outside influences, just like the cove. Only now there was no limit on where they could go, or when Hiccup had to leave. Because, apart from going back to Berk in a week or so, there were no limits.

By the time there was a week left in their trip, Hiccup felt that they both had returned to normal. He leaned against Toothless, staring at the night sky. "You know we have to go back in a week, right?"

Toothless growled but inclined his head. He knew.

"That doesn't mean we can't do this again." Hiccup smiled, hearing the curious rumble that comment elicited. "We should make this a regular thing." Once a year felt a bit long. Maybe twice a year. Once in the spring, like now, and once in the fall. That seemed good.

A questioning warble and a glance from those large green eyes conveyed a question. Why go back at all?

Hiccup shrugged. "It's home. My family is there. Well, Stoick, anyway. He's pretty much it. And Astrid." However that was going to work out. She seemed to have mostly gone back to not acknowledging his existence, for some reason.

Toothless grunted.

"And you." Hiccup raised his hands in self-defense. "You too!" That actually brought something to mind. "What about you?"

That was met with an unimpressed stare.

"Right, that." Sometimes, he forgot Toothless couldn't actually talk. He was so good at making himself understood it honestly slipped Hiccup's mind. "Okay, let me ask another way. You had parents, right? I'm pretty sure that's how it works."

Toothless nodded reluctantly.

"Okay, any siblings?" Hiccup elaborated. "You know, other Night Furies, brothers or sisters?"

Another nod.

"How many?"

Toothless seemed to be almost sad now, but he scratched one line into the ground in front of them.

"One, huh?" Hiccup was realizing where this line of questioning must be leading, given Toothless's change in mood. But he had to know. "Are they... still around?"

A shake of the head. Toothless whined softly, before closing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, bud. I shouldn't have asked." Hiccup laughed softly as Toothless whacked him with his tailfin. "Was that you agreeing or disagreeing? It feels the same either way."

Later that night, Hiccup thought a bit more about what he had learned. Toothless had a sibling. And they were gone. He didn't know, but he was going to bet that sibling was younger than Toothless. Because his friend quite clearly had practice acting as a big brother.

He had other questions this information brought up, but in the end, the answers didn't matter enough to justify bringing up a sensitive topic again. The past was gone, and it wasn't like it could come back to bite them.

O-O-O-O-O

"Come on, it's for a good cause." Hiccup stood on the edge of a cliff, looking down. Toothless huffed in irritation.

"Look, I'll go in, sell those pelts, and then leave. You can even watch me from the woods. They don't seem very observant." Hiccup sighed, seeing Toothless wasn't convinced. "If I come back with gold, Stoick will be more likely to let us do this again in the future."

That did it. Toothless snorted, nudging Hiccup towards his back. They quickly flew down to the dense forest, and Hiccup took the pelts with him as he entered the somewhat large village from the fringes, walking out of the woods as if he had a right to be there.

This place, he noticed, had way more people than Berk. Also unlike Berk, they didn't even seem to notice foreigners, something he was grateful for. A one-legged teenager with pelts drew no more attention than a beggar in the street, ragged and dirty, or a woman asking questions of anyone who made eye contact.

He learned of that particular condition because he made eye contact, and she quickly came close, eyes desperate.

"Can I help you?" He shifted the pelts to one arm.

"I hope so." The woman shifted, looking around worriedly. "My daughter is missing. Have you seen a little girl, about seven years old, blond hair and blue eyes? Her name is Hilda, and she loves cats."

That didn't seem like the greatest way to identify someone. Although Hiccup had noticed several stray cats wandering around, so he supposed it wasn't entirely useless information. "No, I haven't. But if I do, I'll let you know."

"That's all I ask." The woman moved over to another person, asking the same question and receiving the same answer, far less kindly from this person.

Hiccup walked on, keeping the girl in the back of his mind, in case he ran into her. He eventually located a trader who dealt in pelts and set his down.

The trader examined them, before laughing. "Someone got lucky." He held up the smaller. "This one was your work." Then he held up the larger. "But something else killed this. Not you, unless I miss my guess."

"Does it matter?"

"You should have killed the dragon and brought its hide in, not the prey you managed to steal." The trader spoke idly, handing Hiccup the money for the pelts. "Dragon hide goes for a lot more."

Hiccup frowned at him. "Well, that's not happening." He walked away stiffly, wishing his leg wasn't hurting. He would have liked to leave the area quicker, but these random aches weren't helping.

Eventually, he gave in and sat down on a barrel by the edge of an alley, hands on his leg, just above the stump. The pain was aggravating, just strong enough to stop him from ignoring it.

"That looks like it hurts."

"Who said that?" Hiccup looked around, trying to find the origin of the young voice.

A small child stepped out of the shadows of the alley, smiling at him. "Does it?"

Hiccup took in the fact that the girl had blond hair and blue eyes. "Yes. Is your name Hilda, by any chance?" He was surprised to see her shake her head.

"No, it's not. My name is Vithvarandi." The little girl was still staring at his leg. "How much?"

"Not that much. But the pain doesn't really seem to go away entirely." Hiccup answered candidly, still thinking about the strange similarity between this girl and the one that the woman had described.

Before Vithvardani could say anything else, a stray cat walked up to her and started purring, rubbing its head on her ankle.

Well, so much for this girl not-

Vithvardani shocked Hiccup by kicking the cat, hard. It yowled, running away as fast as its scrawny legs could carry it. "I hate cats."

Okay, definitely not Hilda. And far more callous than Hiccup thought most little kids could be.

Vithvarandi continued with their conversation, her eyes strangely intent. "How did you lose it?"

"That's a long story." Hiccup wanted to leave. This girl made him uncomfortable. But his leg did still hurt, and it wasn't like a seven-year-old child could hurt him, even if he didn't currently have a dozen knives on his person.

The girl got closer, now meeting his eyes directly.

He recoiled slightly, shocked by the amount of awareness those eyes held. There was something about her, something off.

"How much would you like to have it back?" She was whispering now.

Hiccup laughed bitterly. "No reason to ask rhetorical questions. It's not coming back." That had hit him a bit harder than it would have, knowing that Toothless's tailfin was coming back. That tiny twinge of jealousy hadn't resurfaced, but to honestly answer the question... "Very much." To run easily, to simply walk without random aches. To be whole, as Toothless would be. He didn't want his friend to have to worry about him any more than necessary.

Vithvarandi was so close she could whisper in his ear. Her voice was entirely serious. "I can bring it back."

Hiccup recoiled, staring at her. "I'm not sure what you think-"

She cut him off, her voice cold. "Do you have a map?"

Hiccup flinched. "Yes, but why-"

"Give it to me." Vithvarandi's tone brooked no argument.

As if in a daze, Hiccup pulled out the simple map he had brought on the trip, and handed it over. He watched as Vithvarandi confidently looked it over, before marking it with a charcoal pencil pulled from a pocket. Then she handed it back.

Hiccup saw that she had put a new island on his map, one on the outskirts, where no ship likely ever went, due to its proximity to what used to be the nest. "What is this?"

Vithvarandi giggled, a noise made disturbing by how she in no way acted like a child. "Where you can be helped."

"You expect me to believe you?" Hiccup didn't specify, because it was all ridiculous. That there even was an island, that something or someone there could do the impossible.

"Yes." Vithvarandi stared at him. "You said you'd very much like to have your leg back. That can be done, there. Find a cavern in center of the island, and descend as far as possible. Bring a group or just one other person. Not a friend though. Someone you don't really know."

"Why not a friend?" Out of everything, that was what Hiccup chose to question.

She smiled. "It's not safe there. No reason to endanger people you care about. But you can bring a friend if you really want. I will say that two, counting you, is the best number. More is problematic. Less is pointless."

Hiccup stared at her. Despite the nonsense she was speaking, her voice carried authority, confidence. "You're a very strange little girl."

She turned to leave, glancing back at Hiccup as she entered the shadows of the alleyway. "Think about it. I like you. I hope you decide to be helped."

In moments, he could no longer see her. Whoever she was, he thought idly, she definitely wasn't Hilda. That cat had proven it fairly decisively.

He returned to the forest without further incident and met up with Toothless.

Once they were in the air, he broached the subject. "Bud, something really weird happened in that town." He described the conversation. "So, she marked an island on my map, and said to go there."

Toothless warbled curiously, looking back at his rider.

"I don't know." Hiccup considered the situation. "I mean, we have a few days. But we could just go home."

A derisive snort.

"Yeah, I know you don't want to go back early." Hiccup stared at the map as if the strange girl's markings could tell him something more. "A cave in the center of the island. Go as deep as we can. Bring at least one other person." He smiled. "Well, she said it would be dangerous. But she didn't know who I'd be bringing."

Toothless roared triumphantly, slowing in midair.

Hiccup made his decision, pointing Toothless in a new direction. "Okay bud, let's see just what the crazy little girl is telling us to do." The odds were, there was no island. But if that was the case, they could just go to the now abandoned nest. And even if there was an island, there might not be a cave system or anything at the bottom.

But if there was... Who knew? Hiccup didn't want to get his hopes up, but there was the tiniest sliver of a chance this might be real. He'd seen some crazy things, who was to say this wouldn't be one of them? Besides, he had a Night Fury by his side. There was nothing they couldn't face together.

O-O-O-O-O

In the village they had left, the mother never found her daughter. None of the villagers noticed the shimmering warping of the air that signified the movement of something invisible to normal eyes, something exiting the village and flying as fast as it could towards some distant point. No one noticed the stains of acid in a forgotten corner of the town, where several alley cats had frequented. People only saw what they expected to see.

Author's Note: So, getting creepy yet? I always welcome guesses and predictions, and look forward to seeing just how many plot twists can be guessed by readers beforehand. At this point though, there's no way anyone knows what's coming...