Remus slammed his hands against the walls of the Haddock home. "How could I have been so stupid?!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "Of course it was a trap. Romulus is too smart for it to have been an accident!" Valka slowly walked towards her brother with her hands up in a calming manner. "Calm down, Remus,"she said. He turned towards her. "Calm down! Calm down! Now that Romulus has the Dragonstone, you expect me to calm down?!" He screamed at her. He punched the wall, slightly cracking some of the boards. Valka waited as Remus took a few deep breaths. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "It's just...I sent the stone with you to hide it from him, and I...I found it for him." Valka walked over to him and began to rub his back in a soothing manner.
Hiccup bounded down the stairs. He wore his just his flight suit, without any of the extra chief stuff, and carried a large bag. Valka watched as he started throwing fruit into the bag. "And where are you off to?" She asked him. Hiccup continued to throw food into his bag as he answered. "To get Astrid." His mother stood in front of him and crossed her arms. "And do you know where she is?" She asked. "Wherever Romulus is." He replied. She moved her hands down to her hips. "And do you know where he is?" She demanded. Hiccup continued with his packing routine, completely unphased by the question. "No. But I won't rest until I find my Astrid and have her safe in my arms." He responded, determination radiating from his entire person. Valka sighed and then turned to Remus. "Talk some sense into your nephew." She commanded. Remus walked over to his sister's side. "She's right. You shouldn't leave without knowing your destination," he said, and then he smiled. "Unless, of course, you took someone who did." Hiccup looked up from his activity. "You volunteering?" He asked. "You got a map?" Remus responded.
The pair waited for nightfall, not wanting any of the villagers to discover where they were going. Quietly, the slipped out the back door of Hiccup's house and sneaked along the outskirts of the town. Normally, they could've snuck through the center of town, but the frozen army had been moved there, and there were people working on trying to thaw them 24 hours. Toothless made a small grunting noise and shook off some of his tiredness. Hiccup turned to look at him with his "If you get us busted, I'm going to kill you" face. They soon reached the cliff overlooking the docks and mounted Toothless. "Alright bud, let's get going." Hiccup whispered to his dragon, patting him on the side of the neck. Toothless stretched himself out and let his wings out. Slowly, he lifted them up. With one strong flap, the three were off like a bullet.
When they were a good distance away, Remus let out a roaring laugh, startling Hiccup. "Ah, I haven't flown on a dragon in almost 50 years. I'd forgotten how great it felt." He yelled over the rushing wind. He lifted his hands to touch the clouds that floated above them and laughed again. The cool chill of the passing air flowed over him as he closed his eyes. When he felt slightly content, Remus dropped his hands and rubbed Toothless' back. "Truly magnificent." He commented and then leaned into Hiccup's ear. "How fast can he go?" Hiccup smiled under his mask. "You may want to hang on." He replied. Remus laughed and latched onto his nephew as Toothless launched himself forward.
When the sun came up, the party rested on a small island, enjoying a breakfast of apples and bread. Remus took a bite out of one of the bread slices. "Mmmm...did you're mother bake this?" He asked. Hiccup laughed so hard that he began to cry. Remus smiled as he swallowed the piece. "She's that bad, is she?" He teased. Hiccup wiped a few tears from his eyes, still giggling a little. "Monumentally so. 20 years with dragons didn't help her cooking in the slightest." He responded. "I wonder what 50 years did to mine," Remus wondered out-loud, taking another bite of his bread. Hiccup looked at him with amazement. "You really lived with dragons for 50 years?" He asked. Remus swallowed the bit of bread he had just eaten. "Well, I wasn't going to spend it with the other prisoners that's for sure." Remus replied and then sighed. "But I never got to see my precious Solstice." Hiccup looked at his uncle with pitying eyes. "That's what you named her, your dragon?" He questioned. Remus nodded. The two went silent for a little while, eating their breakfast. When he finished, Remus pulled out the map. "Alright, lets see where we're going next."
The three soared for an hour in complete silence, until Remus decided to make some small talk. "So, that Spitelout guy is your dad's brother. You two get along?" He asked. "We really just tend to ignore each other." Hiccup replied. Remus nodded and put his hand up to his chin. "So the position of favorite uncle is still open." He observed. Hiccup laughed. "Why, you think you have it in the bag?" He teased. Remus smiled and grabbed Toothless' back. Slowly, he lifted himself to his feet. Hiccup looked back and was astonished to see him standing on Toothless. Remus laughed. "Well, it obviously isn't going to be Romulus," he said, and jumped off.
Hiccup looked down to find his uncle, but he couldn't see him. He was about to have Toothless stop when a Nadder flew up next to them with Remus in its claws. It held him in such a way that it appeared he was standing on a ceiling. He bowed to Hiccup, or at least Hiccup thought he bowed. It's really hard to tell when someone is upside-down. Then he stretched his arms out and the Nadder let him go. To Hiccup's amazement, he performed three backflips and landed with on the twos of his right foot on top of a Gronckle. Remus then hopped up, placed his feet on the Gronckle's wings and shot up 30 feet onto a Timberjack's wings. He sprinted across the dragon, grabbed its left claw and swung down onto a Monstrous Nightmare. Finally, he waltzed down the Nightmare's wings onto Toothless' back, where he slowly lowered himself back to his seated position. "I think my chances are pretty good." He jested. Hiccup stared at him in complete bewilderment. "How..." Remus' laughter cut him off. "Boy, I was training dragons since your mother was in diapers." He answered, wiping off his sleeves. "And speaking of trained dragons." He pointed below them. Hiccup looked down to see the two armored Stormcutters from before. He became deeply enraged. He planned to have Toothless shoot them down when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Wait. It'll be faster if we follow them to the base." Remus instructed. Hiccup huffed, but kept his cool. I will have my Astrid back.
Astrid sat on the rock closest to the wall, and watched as the dragon worked on its masterpiece. Every once in a while it would stop to look at her, then it would change a few things and continue. This continued for hours, but to Astrid it felt like meer minutes. She was so amazed at the dragon's work that her head began to synchronize with the movement of its tail. The dragon suddenly stopped and flew out a little further from the wall to get a better view. Astrid stared at the painting in disbelief. The dragon landed next to her and kept its head low. She looked down at it. Its eyes were blue with large black pupils, kind of like Toothless when he was happy. The eyes looked hesitantly from her to the painting until Astrid realized it was seeking her approval. "It's...it's beautiful. I've never seen anything like it." She said in amazement. The dragon let out a high purring noise, almost like it was rolling its tongue. This brought a warm smile to Astrid, the first since her capture.
The older painting of the Hiccup look-alike caught Astrid's eye and she walked over to it. "Is this your rider?" She asked, pointing at it. The dragon nodded as it began to lie down. Astrid could sense the sadness coming from the dragon and walked over to it. She sat down and slowly moved her hands to pet the dragon. When it showed no sign of fear she began to stroke its head. Slowly the dragon moved closer to her and rested its head in her lap.
A rustling sound came from the forest and Astrid stood up. The dragon growled and wrapped itself around her feet. Out of the brush, a teenager emerged with a bucket of fish and a tray of food. Shakily, he walked a little further and placed the two on the ground. Then he slowly backed up, bowed, and sprinted back through the woods. Astrid walked over to the tray and began to eat from it. The dragon followed her, but stayed away from the bucket. Astrid quickly wolfed down her food and licked her fingers to catch any of the left-over crumbs. She looked to the dragon. It's pupils had constricted into slits and it was staring at the bucket. Astrid stood up, walked over to the bucket, and picked up a fish. She held out to the dragon, who growled at it. "Come on, you have to keep your strength up, for when your rider returns." The dragon still looked unhappy, but its eyes dilated at Astrid's tone. Reluctantly, it accepted the fish from her. "Good...girl?" Astrid questioned. It purred at this, so she took it to mean yes. She rubbed the back of its head. Well girl, looks like we're going to become really good friends."