Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's reading this. Just so you're warned, for some strange reason isn't letting me see the reviews people have left for the first chapter. So, if you had a question and I haven't answered it yet it's because I honestly haven't seen it. Hopefully, the site will just fix this problem.

Anyway, enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 2

Astrid rubbed her hands to calm her nerves as Gobber and Gothi examined the flower she handed to them.

"Well?" she asked. "Do you recognize it?"

"Hmm…," Gobber muttered as he twirled the flower between his forefinger and thumb. "Will admit, I haven't seen it before."

Astrid's hopes sunk slightly. None of the teens had ever seen it before, but she had been hoping one of the adults had. If it really was a brand new plant, they were helpless to save Hiccup.

Astrid hadn't wasted a breath the minute she landed. She found Gobber and went straight to Gothi's hut. She had thought about telling Stoick, however, she would much rather wait until they knew for certain what they were dealing with. Astrid herself was having a hard time keeping a cool head. She wasn't sure if the same could apply to the Chief of Berk once he learned his son was poisoned.

Gothi scratched her chin as she eyed the flower, causing a huge knot to form in Astrid's gut as she watched. Yet, much to her relief, luck was on their side, and Gothi gave a slow nod.

"You know what it is?!" Astrid asking, trying desperately to keep her voice at a normal tone.

The old woman nodded as she started to write in the dirt with her staff.

"Huh," Gobber said curiously as he peered over. "Apparently, it's a plant that has a hard time growing on Berk, so she's only seen it twice in her life as a young boar-Ow! Sorry, girl! I meant, girl!"

Gothi gave him a glare as she threatened to hit Gobber again and wiped away the words with her foot before writing again.

"It's called Yak's Breath," Gobber read aloud.

"Yak's Breath?" Astrid repeated, skeptically.

Gothi gave a shrug as Gobber said "She didn't name the plant, she just knows it." He held up the flower. "Although, if you ask me, a better name for it would be Spotted Sven after my uncle who-"

Gothi swifty struck him with her staff and fiercely pointed to the ground where she wrote.

"Alright, alright," Gobber grumbled and went back to translating. "While the flowers of Yak's Breath aren't poisonous, it's thorns are and there's no cure if someone gets scratched by it."

"What?!" Astrid cried, her heart jumping into her throat.

"Hold on," Gobber cut in by raising his hand, "but the good news is that it's not fatal. It makes the victim have a high fever and feel like they're getting their insides twisted for a few days, but they won't die. It eventually wears off."

Astrid gave a sigh of relief. Hiccup wasn't going to die. Good, that was good. With that worry off her mind, she then frowned in concerned. Regardless of it being deadly or not, it sounded like Hiccup was going to have a rough recovery. "So...there's nothing we can do for him?"

Gothi shook her head and held up a finger for Astrid to wait as she turned her back. The old woman reached into her hut and brought out a large bottle. She placed it into Astrid's hands before returning to writing in the dirt.

"This medicine will help keep his fever down," Gobber read as he folded his arms over his chest, "and most importantly keep him asleep, while he has his hallucinations."

Astrid forgot about looking over the bottle as she raised her head. "Hallucinations?"

Gobber went silent as he read over the rest and sucked air through his teeth. "Oh boy, let's just say the delusions people had during the eel pox epidemic were as breeze compared to the ones caused by Yak's Breath."

"How bad, exactly?" Astrid asked, fearing the answer.

Gothi wrote a sentence that Astrid didn't need a translation for since the old woman's expression cleary read You don't want to know.

"Great," Astrid muttered, darkly. "As if we didn't have enough problems."

"Ah, it's not that bad, Lass," Gobber said. "Just each time Hiccup wakes up, force him to take a swallow and that's all there is to it. He'll spend most of the time sleeping like a baby."

"You say it's easy, but why do I have a feeling it won't be?" Astrid said as she put the bottle in her schachel for safekeeping. She had clear recollections how bad the eel pox affected people. Astrid didn't even want to imagine how much worse the Yak's Breath poison would be.

She then gave a sigh. "Still, thanks, Gothi. At least we have something for Hiccup." She turned her gaze back to Gobber. "And I'm thinking I need to tell Stoick what happened before I head back to Dragon's Edge."

The blacksmith shook his head. "No need, Stoick is away this week meeting with the other chiefs, but I'll fill him in when he gets back."

Well, at least that was one less thing to deal with, Astrid thought as they started to make their way back down the mountain. Astrid hadn't gotten the answer she wanted, but at least it wasn't what she had been fearing. She just hoped the others were doing alright and Hiccup wouldn't wake up until she got back.

08080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080

Snotlout huffed as he slouched in the chair beside Hiccup's bed.

"This is super boring," he muttered as he glanced to the still unconscious Hiccup. "Watching grass grow would be more exciting than getting to witness Hiccup breathe."

Toothless barely turned his head and kept his seat next to Hiccup's bed, his face full of worry. Fishlegs patted the concerned dragon as he glanced back to Snotlout.

"Astrid asked us to keep an eye on Hiccup, and that's what we're going to do," Fishlegs said firmly.

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "I know that, but it seems rather stupid for both of us to be doing this."

Toothless gave a growl.

"Sorry, for all three of us," Snotlout corrected and pointed over his shoulders, "especially since the twins got to run off."

"That's because we're doing important research!" Tuffnut declared as he entered Hiccup's hut.

"Yeah!" Ruffnut agreed as she appeared, carrying a bowl full of green slime and trying to keep it from spilling over.

"Researching what?" Fishlegs asked and pointed to the bowl in disgust. "And what in Odin's name is that?"

"Only one of the many famous Thorston family cures!" Tuffnut said as he took the bowl and showed off the green slime. "Man, I've always wanted to try out these things."

"Wait, the Thorston's family cures?" Fishlegs spoke in horror. "I thought those were banned by Stoick's father years ago."

"They are banned on Berk," Tuffnut cried, and then grinned evilly, "but we're not on Berk, are we?"

"And therefore no longer banned!" Ruffnut added excitedly. "I've always wanted to try out these cures, and we can test them out on Hiccup. One of these old remedies is bound to work."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Fishlegs argued. "We don't even know-"

"Oh, let them try," Snotlout remarked as he rose. "I can't see how these numbskull cures can make things worse, and it's not like we got any other ideas to go on."

Fishlegs sighed in defeat and cringed. "It pains me to say it...but you have a point."

Ruffnut gave a grin full of manic glee as Tuffnut wrapped his arms around Hiccup to sit him up. Toothless's narrowed his eyes in suspicious, but stayed put in his spot as Ruffnut held the bowl up to Hiccup's lips.

"Okay, here we go," Ruffnut stated as she poured the concoction into Hiccup's mouth. "This should fix you up."

Once they were certain Hiccup had swallowed, Tuffnut swiftly set Hiccup back down and stepped away. "Alright, everyone stand clear."

"Uh...why?" Snotlout asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is he going to explode or something?"

"No, but each of the recipes ends with telling people to stand clear," Ruffnut explained. "Apparently they can cause strong reactions in people."

"That's not comforting," Fishlegs replied in a shaky tone.

Suddenly, Hiccup's eyes flew open. He sprang upward, gasping for air like he had just been drowning. Toothless gave a worried growl as the twins high fived each other.

"Look, he's awake!" Tuffnut exclaimed, ignoring how green Hiccup's face was becoming. "That's a good sign-"

He was cut off as Hiccup leaped off the bed and made a dash for a bucket. The group was silent as their listened to their fearless leader vomit non-stop. Finally, when he was finished, Hiccup raised his head, shut his eyes and fell back onto the floor.

Snotlout frowned as he and Toothless approached the young viking. He kneeled to poked at Hiccup's face and rolled his eyes when he got no response. "He's unconscious, again" Snotlout stated. "Guess your 'cure' was just strong enough to make him toss his breakfast."

"Huh," Ruffnut pondered as she grasped his chin and looked to her brother. "Think it has anything to do with the fact this stuff is suppose to be rubbed onto feet?"

"You know," Tuffnut said with a slow nod, "it might."

"Rubbed on feet?!" Fishlegs exclaimed. "Why would-no, wait I don't want to know."

Toothless gave a defensive growl as Snotlout propped Hiccup onto his back to carry back to his bed.

"Alright," Tuffnut said as he took the bowl. "Time for round two-"

"No, no round two," Fishlegs stated as he picked up the bucket and gagged at the smell. "Snotlout watch Hiccup, I'll takes care of Hiccup's mess here before it stinks up the whole hut." He turned to the twins. "And you two dump that stuff somewhere where it won't poison anyone."

Ruffnut huffed. "Fine, we got better cures that we should try anyway," she said as they left the room.

"Wonderful, that's just what we need," Snotlout muttered as the others left and he pulled up a chair. He leaned back and drummed his fingers on his knees. He really didn't like being on watch. Although, not that he would admit it, but it wasn't due to things being boring. It was because he felt so helpless. He hated feeling this way.

Things would be different if they knew exactly what they were dealing with. They always knew what had to be done, especially Hiccup. Simple and easy. Usually, it was Hiccup's mad schemes that saved everything in the end.

Now, it was a combination of not only having no sweet clue what was going on, but also their leader - the one who normally thought of solutions - being the victim. Things were a lot harder without the guy's crazy ideas, not that he would tell his cousin. Hiccup had a big enough ego as was.

Toothless's growl awoke Snotlout from his thoughts. The Night Fury looked miserable, as he lay his head next to Hiccup on the bed. It reminded Snotlout of the time Hookfang's fire nearly died out, and he sat next to his dragon unable to do anything to heal him. He had loathed every minute of it.

Snotlout glanced over this shoulder, double checking the twins or Fishlegs weren't back yet to eavesdrop before speaking.

"Hey, don't worry, Toothless. Hiccup will be fine," Snotlout said in a confident tone. "Hiccup survived the Red Death, getting his foot burnt off and not to mention all the other times he almost got himself clobbered." He gave a smirk. "While scrawny, he's surprisingly hard to get rid of. A little thing like a plant isn't going to kill him."

Toothless gave a low growl, still looking concerned and yet nudge Snotlout's hand gently.

"I'm going to assume that means 'Thank you' in giant reptile," Snotlout remarked as he patted the dragon. "But if you tell anyone I tried to make you feel better, I'll deny it."

Toothless snorted, but then a moan was heard. Both viking and dragon stood at full alert as Hiccup rose, rubbing head.

"What's going on?" Hiccup muttered.

Snotlout grinned and slapped his knee. "Ha! It's about time! Didn't I tell you Toothless?!" Toothless grinned happily as Snotlout rose out of the chair. "How you feeling, Hiccup?"

Hiccup stared up with his face full of confusion. "Hiccup? Who's Hiccup?"

The smile on Snotlout's face vanished instantly. Uh oh, did Hiccup lose his memory? "Um...you are-"

"No, I'm not!" Hiccup snapped as he shoved Snotlout aside and stood up. "I'm Captain Vali!"

"Captain...Vali?" Snotlout said, slowly as he poked his ear. Toothless titled his head, looking completely baffled.

"That's right!" Hiccup snapped. "And you're my first mate, and that" he pointed to Toothless, "is the ship's cat Tiny."

Toothless choked as he stared wide eyed. Snotlout swallowed and coughed into his hands. "Right, he's our cat...um...Hic-I mean, Captain," he spoke and gradually moved towards Hiccup to grab him. "You need to get back into bed-"

"Who's steering the ship?" Hiccup asked.

"What?"

"If you're here, who's steering the ship?" Hiccup repeated, sounding annoyed.

"Ship? WE'RE NOT ON A SHIP!" Snotlout cried, losing his patience.

Hiccup sighed and tossed his hands up into the air. "I just have to do EVERYTHING around here, don't I?!" He stomped out of the hut. "We're going to have words about this later!"

Snotlout stared stunned as he watched Hiccup leave. He was brought out of his stupor when Toothless poked his hand with his nose. The dragon looked at him and then gestured to the door like he was asking for him to explain what just happened.

"Don't look at me, he's your rider!" Snotlout declared. He tugged at his hair with a growl before deciding he should chase after the idiot before he hurt himself.

080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080

"Well, that should do it, eh, Girl?" Fishlegs asked as he held out the bucket for Meatlug to inspect. His dragon sniffed and gave a growl of approval. "Although," Fishlegs continued, "think I'll warn Hiccup not to carry fish in this just to be safe." He shuddered slightly. "I really don't want to know what was in that gross stuff."

A familiar roar made him turn, and he was relieved to see Stormfly as she land.

"Thank, Thor," Fishlegs muttered as he raced up, but slowed his pace as he realized Astrid was alone. "Astrid, where's Gothi?"

Astrid gave a sigh as she reached inside her schachel. "She's actually not needed because, thankfully, Hiccup's not going to die. He got poisoned by the thorns of the flower he found, and while it will make him feverish, it's not lethal."

"Oh..well, that's a relief," Fishlegs said as Meatlug sniffed Stormfly to greet her. "So, you got the cure then?"

Astrid chewed her bottom lip. "That's kind of the bad news, there is no cure. Apparently, the poison will wear off in a few days."

"And what's so bad about that?" Fishlegs asked, not understanding Astrid's frown. "That's a good thing, right?"

"It is," Astrid said slowly as she brought out a bottle, "but the catch is that we need Hiccup to drink this and keep him asleep because-"

"HICCUP, GET YOUR BUTT BACK DOWN HERE!" Snotlout's voice suddenly bellowed throughout all of Dragon's Edge.

Astrid and Fishlegs exchanged baffled looks as they rushed towards the source, with their dragons behind them. They found Snotlout outside the main hut stomping his foot in frustration as both Hookfang and Toothless stared upward.

"Snotlout!" Fishlegs scolded. "I thought I told you to keep an eye on Hiccup."

Snotlout's eyes twitched as his hands tightened into fists. "That's exactly what I'm doing, idiot!"

"How is this watching-"

"Uh, hate to interrupt, but question," Ruffnut asked as she and her twin approached with Barf and Belch, "why is Hiccup on the roof?"

All the teens and dragons glanced up and stared wide eyed. Their fearless leader was sitting up on the roof, with a basket on his head, holding his spy glass and pointing ahead.

"Brace yourself, crew!" Hiccup cried. "There's a strong storm coming! I can feel it in my bones."

Toothless gave a confused growl as he looked to the other teens with pleading eyes. Fishlegs imagined the Night Fury was saying Please, get my crazy human down before he hurts himself.

"Snotlout, explain," Astrid said in a flat tone, but never took her eyes off of Hiccup.

Snotlout shook his head and growled. "All I know is that Hiccup suddenly woke up, claimed he was 'Captain Vali' and decided to steer the 'ship'!"

Tuffnut blinked and scratched his head. "Um...we're an island, not a ship."

"Try telling him that!" Snotlout snapped, stomping his foot. "I've been trying to get him to climb down, but he won't listen! He's gone nuts!"

Astrid sighed as she buried her face into her hands. "No, he's hallucinating because of his fever."

"It's worse than I dared dream!" Hiccup continued. "I dare say that I spy pirates on the horizon!"

"And, boy, Gothi wasn't kidding when she said it was worse than eel pox," Astrid concluded.

"So, what do we do about this?" Fishlegs asked as he watched Hiccup. From how Hiccup's body was wobbling each time he move, Fishlegs was afraid he was going to fall off the roof at any second.

"Right now, get him off the roof and have him drink this," Astrid instructed as she held up the bottle. "We'll make a plan after that."

"That might be easier said than done," Fishlegs stated as Hiccup searched the roof for a sword. "He doesn't look like he'll be in a mood to cooperate with us."

"Oh, please," Tuffnut said with a scoff. "It's Hiccup."

"Yeah," Ruffnut replied with a laugh. "I know boars stronger than him. Tackling him and getting him down will be easy."

080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080808080

An hour later, Snotlout moaned as he rubbed his sore arms. "Easy, huh?" he snarked and shot Tuffnut a glare. "If you ever say that again, remind me to punch you. I got bruises on my bruises here!"

"Hey, how were we to know Hiccup could actually be strong when he wanted to," Tuffnut snapped as he bandaged his hand. "Or had such sharp teeth for that matter."

"Although," Ruffnut said as she rubbed her neck, "seeing Hiccup declaring we were committing 'mutiny' was funny."

"That's your opinion," Fishlegs muttered as he rubbed his sore head. "I didn't think he could kick that hard either."

Astrid shook her head as she finished tucking Hiccup into bed and patted Toothless on the head. "Well, at least we got him to take the medicine and he's sleeping."

"Heh, yeah at least there's that," Snotlout grumbled.

"Now, we just have to do it all again in a few hours," Astrid stated as she leaned against Hiccup's bed.

"Whoa, wait, sorry, I must have mud in my ears or something," Tuffnut replied as he poked his ear with his finger. "I thought you just said 'we would have to do that AGAIN'!"

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Of course we have to do it again. It's going to take a week for Hiccup's body to get this poison completely out of his system."

"So, what you're saying is," Snotlout said as his eyes twitched. "Is that each time Princess Outpost wakes up, we have to force him to drink that stupid medicine, just so we can have some peace and quiet?!" He grumbled and buried his face into his hands. "Terrific."

"It's also to keep his fevers down," Fishlegs added. "Besides, it's not likely he'll be having the same delusion each time."

"Oh, so we're going to get a wide variety of crazy Hiccups!" Ruffnut declared tossing her hands up in the air with a scowl. "That's just awesome!"

"It's either that or we let him run wild for a week, and risk him hurting himself," said Astrid. "We don't have a choice, and since we don't know exactly when he'll wake up each time, we'll have to take turns watching him."

"You say that," Ruffnut said with a grin, "and yet, I'm thinking we just stuff Hiccup in the boar pit and-"

"No, boar pit, " Astrid replied, firmly. "Fishlegs, you take the first watch. After that it'll be me, then Tuffnut, then Snotlout, then Ruffnut and then we start over again. Got it?"

"Got it," Fishlegs replied as Ruffnut mumbled along.

Snotlout said nothing as he stroked his chin and looked thoughtful. "Are we certain we're not open to the boar pit idea-"

Toothless growled.

"Okay, okay! Just checking!" Snotlout replied. "Geez, can't dragons take a joke?"

Astrid sighed, suddenly feeling drained. It was going to be a long week.