Three Months Later- Hiccup

"Hiccup?"

"Hmmm?" I asked, without really looking at her. We'd just gotten done with training for the day and I was cleaning up. Astrid had been staying behind with me the past few days, so her presence didn't really bother me.

"Can I talk to you about what I saw on Outcast Island?"

Now that was a question I hadn't been expecting. It had been about a week since Heather and her parents had left, a week since Astrid had snuck onto Outcast Island disguised as Heather. I couldn't imagine what she wanted to talk about. Not much had happened while she was there.

"Uh, sure," I replied, turning to leave the Academy.

"It's just that there was a lot of dragons in cages there-"

"That's kind of expected-"

She punched me in the arm. "Don't interrupt me."

"Sorry."

"Anyways, do you remember the Nightmare that I trained while there?"

I nodded; how could I not? That dragon had really helped us when getting both her and Heather off the island.

"It had scars and was more, uh, ferocious than any other dragon I've met in the wild. I noticed some of the wild dragons on the island were like that too."

That struck a chord inside. I knew that it was expected that the Outcasts had dragons in cages, but for them to be hurting them like that didn't make any sense, especially when there were no longer any raids. It made me wonder how many other islands were doing that.

"Uh, thanks for telling me, Astrid."

"No problem, I figured you'd want to know."

We'd finished walking back to the village by now, and I turned to head up to my house. "I'll, uh, see you tomorrow, Astrid."

"Yeah, see ya tomorrow," she replied, turning down the road to her house. I opened the door to an empty house, Dad must have still been out chiefing. I didn't care, that gave me time to figure out what I was going to do about the dragons on Outcast Island. I knew Astrid hadn't intended for me to do anything about them, but it wasn't right, and I knew I had to do something. Besides, if Alvin didn't have any dragons, he wouldn't be able to train them and use them against Berk.

"Toothless," I started, suddenly realizing that he wasn't in the room with me. I could have sworn he was with me at the Academy. I pulled up my left sleeve, thinking that he might have gone into his tattoo earlier. My arm showed the distinct outline of a Night Fury instead of its usual scar-ish looking one. Sure enough, that's where he was. A small flash of purple light later and he was standing in front of me.

"Did you forget where I was?"

"In full honesty, yes," I replied, walking over to the trunk at the end of my bed. If the plan I had for freeing those dragons was going to work, then I needed to hide my identity somehow.

"What are you doing?" Toothless asked, coming up beside me.

"I'm looking for something that I can use to hide my identity."

"Why?"

"Cause, well you heard what Astrid said about the dragons on Outcast Island, I can't just leave them. So I'm-"

"-you're going to free them, but don't want the Outcasts knowing it's you."

"Exactly."

"I'm not gonna get you to rethink this, am I?"

"Nope." I'd found a piece of fabric in the trunk; if I tied it around the bottom part of my face, no one would recognize me. I looked a little farther and recognized the black shirt and leggings I had from a few years ago. I'd worn it maybe once in an attempt to hide from Snotlout and the twins, which hadn't worked in the slightest. But I could use it now.

"I'm at least going with you."

"I was planning on going alone. Alvin would recognize you."

"Not if he doesn't see me. I'm not letting you go alone, but I don't have to be out in the open. Besides, what would your father think if he came up here and I'm here but you're not."

"He'd probably send a search party looking for me.

"Ugh, fine. You can come, but you are staying out of sight."

"Unless you need help."

"Unless I need help, sure."

That Night

I waited till I heard Dad go to bed before climbing out of the window in the roof with Toothless. If Dad was going to bed, most of the village would be in for the night, so no one would see me leaving. Once out of the house, Toothless and I ran into the woods, figuring that would be the best place for me to change and take off from. I'd already changed into the black clothes that I'd found before.

Once we were out of sight of the village, I changed into my Halfling form and Toothless went into his tattoo. After making sure that there was enough room in the canopy of trees for me to take off, I jumped into the air, heading for Outcast Island.

Upon reaching Outcast Island, all I had to do was sneak into their dungeon where they kept the dragons. Having been here before, I knew exactly where I was going. The hardest part was staying hidden.

Once I'd made my way down to the cages without being noticed, I got right to work. I could see what Astrid had meant. Pretty much all of these dragons had some kind of scar, and they definitely weren't from other dragons, that I could tell. It was a good thing that I had stayed in my Halfling form for this, or the dragons probably wouldn't have been very fond of me either. Either way, they were still quite leery of me as I broke open the locks on their cages.

Breaking open the locks was not a quiet task, so I moved fast, hoping to get the dragons and myself out of there before we were spotted. Luckily, even with all the noise that the locks on the cages had made, no one came down to investigate. What I had done was discovered only after I'd gotten most of the dragons into the sky, which was great, until we were ambushed by several Outcasts. I pushed the last dragon to take off, letting a plasma blast form in my hand. Realizing that I'd likely be unable to take off without being shot down immediately, I threw my small ball of plasma at the feet of the closest group of Outcasts, not wanting to harm them in any way. This distracted many of the men, and my take off was a lot easier than I had anticipated.

Toothless was practically screeching in my head, giving me a slight headache, trying to get me to let him help. He only stopped once he realized that I was flying through open sky, perfectly fine.

The Next Morning

I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept all night. Gods, what the Thor happened? Out my window, I could see that it was probably early morning. I had to get moving if I was going to be on time for the Academy this morning.

"Toothless," I called fairly loudly for him. He groaned as he lifted his head, just waking up. "Come on, bud. Gotta get up."

"Is it seriously morning already?"

"Really, you're complaining about that? You're not the one that was doing all the work last night. You didn't have to come," I pointed out, as I changed my clothes. I'd just realized that I'd slept in my black clothes that I'd gone to Outcast Island in last night.

"Well, I certainly wasn't letting you go alone."

"I know." With me being fully dressed again, we both made our way downstairs. The house had been completely quiet when I woke up, Dad must have already left this morning. We left the house, greeting the few earlier risers in the plaza that greeted us.

I wasn't really running late per se, so Toothless and I took the scenic route, walking to the Academy. How I'd been able to wake up with this much time this morning confused me, but it wasn't like I was complaining.

Astrid was there when Toothless and I got there, but she was the only one.

"Morning, m'lady," I greeted her, as I yawned. Well, now she's gonna think I'm exhausted.

"Morning." She turned to face me. "You seem tired."

"Wha…? Nah, just haven't been up for very long," I responded, trying to avoid the real reason I was tired this morning. She gave me a confused look, but didn't question it.

One Week Later

The past week had gone pretty smoothly, but I was constantly on alert for Outcasts, or just people that had figured out that I'd gone and done something that night. I started figuring the Outcasts hadn't recognized me, or they would've attacked Berk by now. In fact, I was starting to think that my little escapade on Outcast Island had stayed on Outcast Island. Well, that is, until Trader Johann showed up today.

Johann was telling me one of his stories, as was usual, while I was only paying half-attention. Until he mentioned a strange, masked figure attacking Outcast Island, about a week ago. I looked up, only to realize that he'd moved on to speaking with my father. I wasn't able to pick up much more of the story, but a few key words stuck out to me about the masked person: "wings like a dragon", "could shoot fire from his hands", "all of their dragons gone." Something told me I didn't need to listen anymore, I'd be hearing about it later.

That Evening

"What did you do?"

I jumped, startled by my father's raised voice. I'd just closed the door after getting home from the Academy.

"Uh… wh-what?" I stammered, turning to face him.

"A week ago there was an attack on Outcast Island." He paused. "Well, I wouldn't really call it an attack, but the description was something you seem to fit."

"Dad, I have no idea what you're talking about," I lied. "And what do you mean I fit the description?"

"The attacker was described as a person with the wings of a dragon that could use dragon fire as a weapon, without a single dragon around. With your dragon side, I believe you fit that description, son."

"Dad, I'm probably not the only Halfling in the area. And besides you've never seen me with my wings and everything."

"The attacker freed all of the dragons."

"Did they do anything else?"

"No, but I know that's definitely something you would do."

"It is, but, Dad, I swear you've known about every time I've left Berk recently." Dad seemed to relax a bit. I moved away from the door to sit down in a chair by the fire.

"I got a question though, Dad." He looked at me. "It's the Outcasts. I mean, aren't we at war with them? Why are you caring so much?

"We may be at war with them, Hiccup. But an attack is an attack, and we are the closest to them. If there's going to be another one, we may be targeted next."

"Oh," was all I could say.

"I'm not the only chief worried about this either. The Bog-Burglars, Meatheads, Peacables… from what I've heard, son, everyone is worried about this attacker and worried they'll be next."

"It sounds like the attacker went after freeing the dragons though. As long as they don't have any dragons locked up they should be fine. We should be fine, right?" I questioned. I really don't like being on this topic. I'm not planning on doing that again anyway.

"We may not have dragons locked up in cages, but we're the only ones in the archipelago like that, Hiccup. And we can't take the chance of a 'should be'. If there ends up being another attack, then we need to prepare ourselves for one as well."

"Yeah." I didn't know how to respond. There's more islands treating dragons that way? I wasn't happy about that; I mean I'd known there were islands that kept dragons in cages before the end of the war, we'd done that. But the war was over, there was no reason for them to still be fighting the dragons. I guess this wasn't the only time I'm doing this.

I glanced over at Toothless, who had curled up next to the fire next to me. He caught my eye, and must have figured out what I was thinking, because he gave me a brief look that clearly said "no" before putting his head back down on his paws.

Dad had remained quiet after telling me we'd need to be ready, so, assuming he was dropping the topic for the night, I stood up and headed up to my room, Toothless following me.

Once upstairs, Toothless pretty much rounded on me the way I'd expected Dad to.

"I can't believe you lied to your dad."

"What was I supposed to tell him? He'd've yelled at me if I actually admitted that it was me."

"But you still lied to him. And from the looks of it, that wasn't the last time we're doing it."

"I've already told you that you don't have to come with me."

"And I've already told you that you're not going alone."

I sat down on my bed, Toothless going over to the stone slab that made up his. After using his fire to warm up the stone, he laid down.

"Y'know, Hiccup," he started. "If you're really going to keep doing this, you should probably find a better way to hide who you are."

"Oh, so now you're giving me advice?" I sarcastically questioned.

"I know you well enough. There's no way I'm gonna be able to talk you out of it, so I might as well help you with it."

I nodded and laid down, "Goodnight Toothless."

"Goodnight Hiccup."

A Few Weeks Later

"That didn't go so bad, now did it, bud?" Toothless and I were flying home from the Murderous tribe's island. This had been our first trip to this one, and Toothless, going off the name and what he'd heard my dad say about them, had been concerned that we weren't going to get off this one alive. But here we were, flying through the clouds, both of us mostly unscathed.

"Yeah, sure, Hiccup."

"What do you mean by that?" We made it off the island without attracting too much attention, it'd actually gone smoother than our initial trip to Outcast Island.

"I mean that you got hurt. If-"

"Barely. I'm fine."

"Your wing got caught when you were shot down. It looked broken to me."

"You're making it sound like I nearly died."

"You could've."

"But I didn't."

With all of our arguing, neither of us had noticed that we'd dropped below the clouds, or that we'd ended up over a ship like I'd never seen before. We only noticed when a chain shot up and wrapped around my torso, pulling me off of Toothless and down towards the ship. With my wing injured, I'd been unable to change back to my human form when I'd gotten on Toothless back on the Murderous Islands, but that also meant that the chain wrapped around my torso, binding my wings to my back, was causing me an immense amount of pain. Toothless, unable to fly without me, did what he could to free me, but, upon shooting the chain and the winch, found that both were made from a dragon proof metal. Unable to do anything, he settled for entering his tattoo, hoping that once I was on the ship he'd be able to help me.

I landed on the ship hard, the chain loose enough that I was able to at least stand. As I did so, it fell, loose, to the deck around my feet. I looked around, trying to get an idea of where I was and what I might be up against.

I was standing on a single ship. However, that single ship was huge and had several sections that just looked like smaller ships connected to the large main one. The ship had symbols, insignias, carved into its masts and painted on the sides of the hull; I'd never seen anything like them. This ship must be from outside the archipelago.

I was surrounded. If I was getting off of this ship, I was gonna have to fight my way off. I mentally asked Toothless for my sword, which was strapped to his saddle, and it appeared in my hand with a flash.

Nobody moved.

This was probably a good thing though. I could feel my right wing hanging funny on my back from when it had gotten caught on the Murderous Islands. It ached like Hel, but I wasn't about to let these guys know I was in pain. If there was one thing I'd learned from the other Vikings that I'd grown up around, it was that you never show weakness around a potential enemy; if you did, it'd be used against you.

Before I realized what was happening, someone had snuck up behind me and pulled on my injured wing. I fell backwards, crying out in pain. The man tied me up in my moment of weakness and took me into the ship. I knew what was happening; I was being taken prisoner on this ship, and there was nothing I could do about it.

The Next Day- Stoick

"Stoick."

I turned sharply. It was about midday, and I was walking through the plaza. I walked over to Gobber, who had said my name. "Yes?"

"You seen Hiccup at all today? He usually swings by in the morning on his way to the Academy."

I froze. I knew Hiccup was usually seen around town throughout the day, but for Gobber to not have seen him at all didn't make sense. "I haven't. He was gone by the time I'd gotten up this morning. I figured he'd already left with Toothless."

"I wouldn't be asking, Stoick, but you and I both know that he's pretty much the only one that can keep Snotlout and those twins under control. And, well…" He gestured out towards the plaza. I turned just to see Snotlout and his dragon crash into the ground; the twins weren't far behind. Not too long after, Astrid and Fishlegs landed next to them, Astrid immediately dismounting and yelling at the twins.

"He's not there."

"Aye, and this has been happening all morning."

"It has?" I'd been out on one of the farms all morning, settling a dispute between two of our farmers. If this was happening all morning, I wouldn't have had any clue.

I walked over to Fishlegs, who was just standing next to the dragons watching Astrid yell at the other three Riders.

"Where's Hiccup?" I asked him.

He jumped, not having heard me come over. "I, uh, I don't know, chief. He wasn't at the Academy this morning."

Astrid saw me and came over. "Yeah, these three muttonheads took Hiccup's absence as a free day to be complete idiots and destroy things."

I sighed. "Just… try to keep them away from the village so they don't destroy anything." With that, I walked away towards the house. If Hiccup wasn't around all morning, maybe he just overslept, or maybe he wasn't feeling well, even that would be better than not finding him at all. I was trying to be optimistic, but it wasn't working real well. If he was really missing, then we needed to find him as soon as possible.

I entered the house and immediately yelled for him. No response. Knowing that wasn't a good sign, I walked over to the stairs and started to ascend them. Upon reaching the top, I realized his room was empty. There was no sign of him, or where he might be. I sat down on his bed and sighed. If only I had just checked for him this morning...

Somewhere in the middle of the sea
Hiccup

I woke up, my back and wings aching more than I ever thought they could. It took me a minute to realize where I was, as I didn't immediately remember being shot down last night. Upon remembering that, however, I panicked slightly, knowing that if it got too late and I wasn't able to get out of here, my absence would be noticed on Berk. And that definitely wouldn't be good.

I was pulled from my thoughts by a guard walking up to the door of my cell. "Boss wants to see ya." He unlocked the door and grabbed my arm, practically dragging me out of the cell. I soon realized that he was taking me to the captain's quarters, where I was tied to a chair and left alone.

The room was simple. There was a desk in front of me, piled with books and scrolls of paper. On the wall behind the desk was a map, showing several islands that I'd never seen before. One had a knife piercing the map right in the middle of it. I looked around the room a little more; it wasn't that different from what I had seen of other captain's quarters. Other than the desk, the only other piece of furniture was a bed along one of the walls, upon which were hung several different types of weapons, from axes to swords to crossbows.

The door creaked open behind me and closed almost as quickly. The man that had entered walked around to face me and leaned against the desk. I assumed that this was the captain, even if he looked extremely young. He had about shoulder length hair that was as black as Toothless' scales. His eyes, a cold gray, sent a shiver down my spine.

"What's your name?" He spoke so softly, I almost didn't hear him. I figured it was better to stay quiet anyway, so I just stared at him. This seemed to enrage him, as he proceeded to slap me, the talons on the back of his glove catching on my cheek. "I asked what your name was!" This time it was louder, but I still wasn't answering. I had no idea who this man was, and if I gave him my name, he'd surely figure out where I was from and attack Berk for some reason or another.

Tell him a different name, came Toothless' voice in my head.

Like what? I thought back.

Something to do with night, maybe? That is when you leave Berk to do things dressed like this. Then you can just associate this name with this other you.

I sighed as I was slapped again. I'd been so distracted by Toothless, I hadn't paid attention to the man in front of me. "Do I need to repeat myself?" The man in front of me then pulled a sword from the belt at his waist that I hadn't even noticed was there. The next thing I knew, the sword was at my neck and he was right in my face, his hand on the back of my chair.

I had to come up with something, or this man looked like he was ready to kill me on the spot. Something to do with night… Night Rider? Sure, that sounds like something someone might call themselves.

"Uh… Night R-rider," I stumbled out, more worried about the man's sword at my neck than anything else at this point.

He leaned back, "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" He set his sword down, leaning it against the desk. "Now it would just be rude of me to not give you my name, wouldn't it?"

That confused me. He'd just threatened me and now he's concerned about being rude?

"The name's Durin. And, judging by your appearance, your mother was Ikapo."

WHAT?! How the Hel would he know my mom?

"You don't say much, do you? Well," he paused, walking over to the door, "I'm done with you for the day." He must have motioned to one of the guards outside the door, because next thing I knew, I was being untied and dragged back to my cell.

Two Months Later

It's been two months since I was first threatened by the captain of the ship, and I at least have an idea as to why I was shot down in the first place. The people on this ship seem to hate Halflings; I've seen them kill at least three since I've been here, which makes me wonder why I haven't been killed yet.

Other than just killing them though, it seems that Durin himself enjoys torturing people like me, just for the fun of it. I've been whipped, my wings and tail both cut into, he's even gone after cutting into my stump, which was just fully healed in the first place! But what surprised me the most was probably that he had somehow made Toothless appear in a much smaller form, the last time I'd been around him. The process itself was painful for me, I can only imagine what it did to Toothless.

My thoughts were interrupted by a couple of Halflings being brought in and thrown into the cells across from me. I couldn't even move, without being in immense pain so I stayed where I was, just kind of listening to their conversation.

One of their voices I recognized; her name was Kary, I'd met her once when she'd flown close to Berk while I was out flying with Toothless. She'd given me several tips on how to keep my identity hidden. I'd also heard from her that most Halflings and dragons in the archipelago consider Toothless and I something of saviors, because we'd taken down the Red Death. I'd figured she'd never be one to be caught by someone, she'd seemed too experienced in flying and maybe even fighting for that to happen. But I guess I was wrong.

"I'm telling you Kary, this was a horrible idea. We don't even know if he's here," came a male voice, which confused me a bit. If they were here looking for someone, then maybe I had been right about her.

"I told you, I saw him on the deck the other day. He didn't even look like he could fly."

I had to at least try and let them know I was here, even if I couldn't move. I did what I could to sit up a little more, leaning against the wall of my cell. It hurt like Hel to do so, but if I hadn't moved a little, I wouldn't have been able to speak clearly.

"Hey," I started, unsure of what to say. "I couldn't help but overhear that you're looking for someone."

"Who said that?" came the male voice.

I sighed. I was gonna have to move so they could see me. Using my hands, which were mostly uninjured, I scooted a little closer to the door, close enough so I could see them, and they could see me. Upon seeing me, I saw Kary's eyes go wide as she put a hand over her mouth. She must have recognized me.

"I did." I shifted my gaze from Kary to the man standing in the cell next to hers. He had blonde hair streaked with a dark teal color and eyes that were a golden yellow. I was starting to notice that eye color was common among Halflings, as it was among dragons. As for his draconic features, now those were interesting. The most obvious were his wings, which he had two sets of; although, it appeared as though he was able to tuck the bottom set of them away under the top set. I made a mental note to ask about his dragon species if we all ended up getting out of here alive.

"See, Cay? I told you he was here!" Kary exclaimed before turning back to me. "You look horrible-"

"Gee, thanks," I muttered.

"Sorry… anyway, are you okay?"

"What do you think?" I paused. "I'm alive though, at least."

The man that had come in with Kary, Cay, cleared his throat, catching both of our attention. "Kary, you're sure this is the boy you met a few months ago?"

"Yes, Cay! It's definitely him."

"Alright…" he seemed to be thinking. "Hey, kid!" he turned to me. All I did was look at him in response, giving him very little indication that I'd heard him. "What's your name?"

"I already told you his name, Cay!" Kary exclaimed before I could say anything.

Cay thought for a bit, then asked if I had something I went by, other than my given human name.

I had to think for a moment before remembering the name I'd given Durin. "Night Rider."

"Ooh, I like that!" Kary commented. "It fits you."

Cay nodded, seemingly lost in thought. "We need to get out of here. Can you fly?" he asked me.

"Probably not, I can barely move."

He sighed. "Is your dragon injured at all?"

"I don't think he is."

"Then he's gonna be your way off the ship once we get out of these cages."

I only nodded, confused on how we were going to get out of here. From what I could tell, these cells had been made to keep people like us in. But he thought he could get us out of here and Kary seemed to trust him, so I could too, at least for now.

Cay stepped back from the door of his cell, held his right arm out in front of him, and closed his eyes. A small flash of light later, there was a small dragon, with features similar to Cay's draconic features sitting on his arm. Cay brought the dragon up towards him, said something, then moved the dragon directly next to the door. The dragon crawled through one of the spaces in the door and flew out of sight.

At my confused look, Cay explained, "That's my dragon. He's gone to see if he can find keys, and if he can't then something I can break the lock with."

I nodded. Cay seems to really know what he's doing, he must have had to do this before.

A few minutes later, the dragon came back, a dagger in his talons. Cay sighed as he took the dagger and walked over to the lock on the door. He looked around and then quietly slid the blade of the dagger into the opening on the lock. Looking around once more, he adjusted his grip on the dagger and then jerked it downwards, breaking the lock. The lock, being part of the door, thankfully didn't need to be caught as he pulled the dagger out of it as quietly as he could. With how loud the lock breaking had been, both Kary and I were looking around and listening for people coming to see what had happened. Surprisingly no one came, but Cay waited just a few more minutes before he moved to open the door of the cell. In those few minutes, his dragon had flown off yet again, and come back with Toothless, who flew over and landed on the floor next to me.

Cay slowly opened the door of his cell, just enough for him to squeeze out of it and slowly walk over to Kary's cell. He broke the lock on her cell as quietly as he had his, and froze for a moment before moving over to mine to break its lock.

"Do you know how to get him back in his tattoo?" Cay hissed. "He won't be able to fully come out so you can ride him out of here unless he does." I shook my head. Cay sighed, and knelt down next to me on the other side of the door. "Alright, he needs to actually be touching you, just like you normally would do, and it's the same process, you'll both just have to concentrate a little harder. I find it helps to close your eyes when you do it."

I did as I was told, breathing a huge sigh of relief when I could hear Toothless in my head once again. I almost smiled for the first time in two months, despite the amount of pain I was in. I opened my eyes and looked at Cay.

"I'm impressed, most aren't able to do that so easily, especially given the condition you're in." Cay smiled and stood up, using the dagger to pull himself up and breaking the lock in the process. He pulled the door open, then bent down and slid an arm under one of mine to help me stand. Kary came over and slid an arm under my other one to help support me. All we had to do was get me to a place where Toothless would be able to carry me off the ship from. Luckily, the trappers had not taken me fully below deck, so they just needed to get me out of the cell and onto Toothless. Getting me out of the cell was the easy part, onto Toothless was a different story, and a painful one. Being unable to even move because of the pain, it was incredibly painful to even just sit on Toothless, but I'd deal with it if it was going to allow me to go home.

As soon as I was fully settled on Toothless, Cay turned to me. "Just worry about getting off the ship and out of range. Don't worry about Kary and I. Do you understand? You are far too injured to end up shot down again."

"Yep, I got it." I nodded as I said it, to really tell him I understood what he was saying. With Kary and Cay leading, we headed out of the ship and onto the main deck.

The minute Kary pushed open the door we had Trappers pulling their weapons and rushing us. Toothless shot a few plasma blasts at the Trappers coming towards us as I reached down and pulled the lever that would allow his tailfin to move identically to his real one, so he could fly on his own. I was in no condition to even attempt to control it. Once realizing I had pulled the lever and was set back on him, he took off, heading straight up and out of range just as Cay had told us to do. A few minutes later, Cay and Kary joined us, not having too much of an issue getting off the ship.

"I'm going to suggest that you let us help you out with your wounds, Night Rider. Flying all the way home with them is not a good idea as we're quite aways from the outskirts of the archipelago." Cay suggested as we flew.

"If I'm being entirely honest, if we're outside the archipelago, I have no idea even how to get home from here."

"We can probably sit with you on an unoccupied island somewhere in the archipelago until you're back up to full health too." Kary suggested. "I remember you saying that your tribe didn't know about your outings as Night Rider, which means they probably also have no idea what's happened to you in the past few months."

"Yeah," I responded. "They have no idea that I'm even Night Rider and I'd like to keep it that way. Showing up back home like this would definitely raise a lot of suspicion, and everyone would be expecting an explanation."

"We'll go with that plan then. We can help you get back to your full health, maybe even teach you a few things on how to evade the Trappers, and then you can head home when you feel you're ready." Cay fully decided.

With that decision in mind, we kept flying towards what I assumed was the archipelago and home.

Berk- Stoick

I sighed as I sat down in my chair. It'd been a long day, and not just because my son was still missing after two months. The council had been urging me to consider the possibility that he just wasn't coming home, but I wasn't willing to give up just yet. We'd searched everywhere, including Outcast Island, thinking that he may have been caught by Outcasts, but he hadn't been there. Even Alvin had mentioned something a few days ago when he'd attacked about Hiccup being nowhere to be seen.

In Hiccup's absence, Astrid had taken over commanding the Riders, much to Snotlout's dismay. She was doing an excellent job in battle; however, it was evident that she wanted to find Hiccup just as much as I did.

When we'd initially discovered his absence, I'd looked over his room, thinking that there was maybe something that could point us in the direction of his disappearance. But, unfortunately, there hadn't been anything; his room appeared as it always did. I stood and started climbing the stairs up to his room. I hadn't been up there in two months, but maybe I'd missed something; it didn't hurt to check again.

Before reaching his room, though, I noticed something I'd never noticed before: there was something under Hiccup's bed.

I walked over to his bed upon reaching the top and pulled the stuff out from under his bed, and was shocked by what it was. Laying on the floor in front of me was none other than Toothless's saddle and tailfin, something I knew him to be unable to fly without. Wherever Hiccup and Toothless were, they couldn't have left the island on their own without this.

Hiccup- Breakneck Bog
A Few Hours Later

As we came across the fifth island since leaving the ship, Cay looked over at me and said we would land on this one.

"That's Breakneck Bog! Isn't it not a good idea to stay on that island?" I asked, concerned.

"What do you mean?" Kary asked, looking over at me.

"The Smokebreaths," I started, looking down at where my prosthetic was attached to Toothless's saddle.

"As long as you don't have a lot of metal on you, you'll be fine. And this is probably the best place for us to stay; Vikings usually stay clear of here," Cay said reassuringly.

"Yeah, yeah, that's a great theory and all, except when my friends and I have been here, we were attacked by the dragons. I-" Cay cut me off.

"You were with a bunch of Vikings, correct?" I nodded. "Who were wearing a lot of metal. With us, you should be fine."

I shook my head, he must have not looked at Toothless's saddle. "That's where you're wrong. Yes, my friends wear and carry a lot of metal. But Toothless and I carry the most. Without it, he can't fly and I can't walk," I explained.

Cay gave me a quizzical look, then motioned for us to land on the outermost part of the island, the thumb of the hand. Once we landed and they'd helped me off of Toothless and over to a rock to lean against, Cay looked both Toothless and I up and down and something seemed to click.

"Both of you are amputees…" He started. "I, um, I get your wariness of this island now.

"Hopefully the Smokebreaths won't come around this part of the island; they make their nests on one of the other parts."

Three Weeks Later

Cay smiled as he unwrapped my wing. It was the last injury from the ordeal with the Trappers to heal. Cay, Kary and I had talked and they'd agreed to teach me how to fight the Trappers. That way, I probably wouldn't get caught again. Unfortunately, they had both agreed that I needed to be fully healed before we started, so the broken wing was really starting to get on my nerves. But Cay's smile had caught my eye. I was really hoping that meant it was healed. It felt fine.

"I think it's finally healed-"

"Really?!" I jumped up and stretched it a little before flapping both wings to get myself in the air a little bit.

Cay laughed, "I wondered if you were getting a little antsy being trapped on the ground."

I laughed and landed, "Yeah, since I met Toothless, there hasn't been a day where I'm not up in the air."

"I did want to ask…" Cay started. "It doesn't seem like Durin to actually break something on us, he usually goes for what he can do with a knife."

"Yeah… Durin didn't break my wing. It got caught while I was trying to get off an island."

"You said you went by Night Rider, right?"

"Yeah."

"I think I know what you're talking about, even though you're being incredibly vague." At my confused look, he explained, "Halflings and dragons across the archipelago have heard of you, and that you go around freeing dragons that have been locked up in cages around the Archipelago, with the exception of one island."

"One island? I hit every island that traps them." I questioned.

"The Isle of Berk is never one that you go to, or so I've heard."

"That's because Berk is my home, and we don't cage dragons. They're our friends."

"Oh." Cay seemed taken aback. "I didn't realize that. Sorry. But doesn't leaving an island out of the mix seem a little dangerous, don't you think? People could realize you're not going there because it's where you're from."

"They haven't yet. And besides, based on why I go to the other islands, Berk wouldn't make sense. And the people would probably recognize Toothless and I, so going there as Night Rider is the worst idea I could ever try."

"I guess you have a point. I shouldn't've judged based on the little bit I knew about you."

"It's okay, my dad has been trying to keep our friendship with dragons to ourselves because most of our allies wouldn't be too happy with it and we don't need another war at the moment."

"Your dad?"

"My dad is the chief of the tribe. That's why I would probably be recognized if I tried to do something there as Night Rider, and why that really wouldn't look good… at all."

"Isn't the Chief of Berk Stoick the Vast?"

"Yeah, that's my dad." Cay looked at me funny. "What?"

"Are you his only son?"

"Yeah… my mom was taken by a dragon when I was only a few months old, so…"

"I've heard things about Stoick's son, the heir to Berk, and none of them seem to line up with you."

"I think I know what you're talking about, and all of those are rumors started after Toothless and I took down the Red Death. Probably because Toothless is usually left out of the story."

"Oh, so all of the rumors about Berk's heir-"

"-are pretty much all false." I finished for him. "Everything I'm known for doing, Toothless was a part of, but he's usually left out of the story when it's told anywhere off of Berk."

"That's an important thing to know. Considering I used to live in fear of Berk's heir because of what I've heard about him, you, from Vikings around the markets. But I guess knowing that you're not like the rumors say is pretty comforting."

"Yeah, I can see how it might have been.

"So, anyways…" I started. "You said you'd teach me how to fight the Trappers as soon as I was fully healed and I am now…"

"Yes, we should probably get on that. How long have you been away from home?"

"Almost three months, I think. Why?"

"Something tells me we shouldn't keep you too much longer then. If you're the heir to your tribe, then they'll have been looking for you."

"Yeah, you're right."

A Week Later

"You want me to what?!" I exclaimed. I'd been training with Cay and Kary for the past week and had learned more than I'd thought was possible about my dragon side and how to use it. This morning I'd woken up to find my prosthetic was missing and Cay sitting on a rock smirking at me.

"You fell asleep without your prosthetic last night and while you were asleep the Smokebreaths took it after they finally found us last night. I want you to go get it from them. They would have taken it back to their nest," Cay explained.

We'd been training with the Smokebreaths all week, so I knew how to get around them without harming them, but what he was asking me to do….

"Cay, that is insane!" I exclaimed. "I'd rather not tangle with the Smokebreaths in their home if I don't have to."

"Don't you need your prosthetic to walk, and fly Toothless?"

"Yes, but I wear a different one at home. So I-"

"Look Hiccup, the reason I'm telling you to go do this alone is because I want to see if you're actually ready to handle yourself out there after the training we've done in the last week. I wasn't expecting you to argue with me about this."

I stared at him. "Well you could've just led with that! I wouldn't have argued with you then!"

"I apologize. Are you actually going to go now though?"

"Yea, I'll go now…" I said reluctantly. "That doesn't mean I'm going to like or agree with what you want me to do." With that, I took off heading straight up to get above the trees before heading to the Smokebreaths nest.

Berk - Stoick
Later that Day

Another month gone and there was still no sign of Hiccup. I hadn't told anyone about finding Toothless's saddle and tailfin under Hiccup's bed a month prior; something told me that he hadn't told anyone where he was going or why Toothless wouldn't have had his saddle on.

I was in the middle of a council meeting when Hiccup was brought up, once again.

"Stoick," Spitelout started, "you have to consider the possibility that Hiccup isn't coming home. It's been three months."

"I'm not giving up on him, Spitelout. If it was your son that was missing, would you give up that easily?"

"After three months, I think I'd start considering the possibility that he was dead and not coming home."

I looked around at the rest of the council. Since finding out from Alvin two months ago that he'd had nothing to do with Hiccup's disappearance, the council had been nagging me to consider him being dead. But I hadn't been able to bear that thought, and still didn't want to. But maybe Spitelout was right; it had been three months since anyone had seen or heard from Hiccup, there was a good chance that he wasn't going to be coming home.

A Sea Stack Just off Berk - Hiccup
That Night

"Well, I guess we'll see ya around, Hiccup," Cay said, right after landing. Him and Kary had flown from Breakneck Bog to Berk with me, just to make sure I got home alright.

"Yeah, I guess," I said, turning to look at the lights that made up my village on the island in front of me. Three months ago, I'd left thinking I'd be back in a few hours, and here I was returning a few months later. The village probably thought I was dead, which I wouldn't blame them if they had started to assume that. I'd disappeared without a trace, and told no one where I was going.

"Something wrong?" Kary came up beside me. "You were so excited to go home."

"I don't know," I started. "It's just- this is gonna sound silly."

"I promise I won't laugh," Kary assured me, then looked at Cay. "Neither of us will."

"I've been gone for three months. And I didn't tell anyone where I was going when I left. They probably all think I'm dead."

"Hold on," Cay held up his hands, "you didn't tell anyone where you were going?"

"Yeah…"

"That is probably the worst thing you could have done. Based on what you've said about your father, he's probably worried sick about you and most likely hasn't given up hope that you're still alive somewhere."

I nodded and looked down at my feet.

Kary put her hands on my shoulders. "Promise us that you'll at least tell your dad about what you're doing and when you leave as Night Rider from now on. That way at least someone on the island knows what might have happened to you, should something like this happen again."

I looked out towards the village again, then turned to Kary, "I promise." What she had said made sense, I had just been scared my dad wouldn't let me out of his sight if I told him because of how overprotective he could get.

"Well, I guess I should get going, if I have any chance of catching my dad before he goes to bed."

"We'll see you around, Hiccup," Kary said, smiling. "Just be safe, I don't want to have to see you like you were a month ago again."

I smiled and pulled my mask up. I waved at them then took off towards home.

Berk - Stoick

I put my head in my hands after getting the fire going. Spitelout was right; it had been three months, Hiccup probably wasn't coming home. I had to accept it.

THUD!

My head shot up. That noise had come from Hiccup's room above me. Trying not to get my hopes up, I stood and ran towards the stairs, hoping to the gods that he'd finally found his way home.

As I reached the top there was a flash of purple. "Hiccup?"

"Dad?" came his voice in response. He's alive! was the only thought going through my head as I found my way through his dark room to where I could see his silhouette in front of the window. He met me halfway there and practically jumped into my arms. I knelt down on one knee, so that his feet were at least touching the ground. I held him like that for a few minutes and he, for once, didn't seem to argue.

Finally letting him go, I put my hands on his shoulders and asked, "Son, what happened? Where did you go?"

"Uh… before I explain that, Dad, I need to talk to you about something," he replied, moving around me towards his bed, where he sat down and reached towards the candle sitting on the table next to it. He lit the candle with his own fire then turned to look at me.

As the light from the candle lit the room, I took in his different appearance. He was dressed head to toe in black clothes, and that's not even mentioning his prosthetic being different. He was wearing bracers and gloves as well, causing all but his face to be covered. He seemed unhurt though, just to be waiting for a reaction from me. I moved to sitting next to him on his bed.

He fidgeted a little, turning away from me. "I'm kinda surprised you haven't said anything."

"What do you want me to say?" was my only answer.

"I don't know. I guess I just was thinking you'd say something about how I'm dressed, or start questioning me, or something." He'd been gesturing with his hands while talking, but as he finished the sentence, he'd just let them fall in his lap.

"You said that you wanted to talk about something, so I was just letting you talk."

"Oh, uh, okay." He paused and didn't seem to know where to go from there. He took a deep breath and then started, "You know about that masked dragon rider, right?"

I was taken aback a bit by this question, and my mind immediately went to the worst situation. "I do. He's been terrorizing the archipelago for the past four months." Hiccup flinched at the word terrorizing, but that's what he'd been doing; we'd been lucky so far to not have been attacked yet.

"Terrorizing is kind of a strong word, isn't it?" Hiccup asked, looking at me. There was a look in his eyes that I hadn't seen in a while. It was almost like he was begging me to agree with him.

Not wanting to argue with him about this, I quickly asked, "What does he have to do with this? He didn't hurt you, did he?" If the man had hurt my boy, he'd be a dead man as soon as I got my hands on him.

"What?! No, Dad, nothing like that. I wanted to tell you, uh, that I-" He paused, and took a deep breath, "It's me, Dad. I'm the masked rider." Hiccup turned to look at me, waiting for a reaction.

"I, uh, what?" I didn't know what to say. Hiccup couldn't be the mysterious rider, could he? But the more I thought about it, things started to line up. Both held similar things dear, both seemed to have a dragon side, and both had been missing for the last three months.

"Do you need me to explain a little more?"

His question startled me a bit; I'd been so lost in my thoughts. "I, uh, I can see how it lines up. But that also means you lied to me a few months ago when the rider first appeared."

"I know. I guess I was afraid that if you found out what I was doing, you wouldn't let me anymore. You do tend to get a little overprotective of me." He paused, "I'm sorry for lying to you, it felt like the right thing to do at the time. Especially since it was originally only going to be a one time thing."

"I'm sorry that you felt like you had to keep something like this from me. I know why you're doing what you're doing, and if no one has figured out that you're you yet, then it doesn't put you in danger here. And as long as you stay safe while you're out there, then I won't stop you because you aren't hurting anyone.

"I would still like to know where you've been the last three months, Hiccup. You just disappeared."

"Oh, um, that." He chuckled nervously. "Toothless and I got shot down on our way home one night." I went to say something, but he cut me off, "But we're both fine, Dad. And I know how to keep away from them now so they can't keep me locked up anymore, much less shoot me down." He looked up at me, "I'll be fine, Dad."

He was right. He was fine, his dragon was fine, I had nothing to worry about. He could continue with his outings and as long as he was home by morning, I had nothing to worry about.