How To Train Your Dragon: A Loss That Shouldn't Be
Chapter 4: The Journey Begins

Morning came in a groggy manner the next day. Toothless woke to the usual sounds of Terrible Terrors clambering to get their ideal perch in the morning sun, the scratching against the rooftop being the only alarm he needed. He had woken to find himself back inside the Haddock household, assuming he must have been carried there after Valka put him under. He felt a tinge of remorse in his gut for going crazy in the shop, realizing that the sight must have been either amusing or downright alarming for everyone involved. It wasn't like him to just trash things after all. The Night Fury licked around his jaws as he tried to pry himself up from the ground. Surprisingly, he felt much more refreshed than he had a few hours ago, like his sudden burst of aggression had somehow helped. Or was it desperation more than anger? He was still too groggy to really think on it, pushing himself to his feet as much as the rest of his body wasn't wanting him to leave the warmth of his rock.
"Don't be getting up too fast, dear," a voice suddenly said, causing the half-awake dragon to twitch his ear plates. That voice would be Valka who was currently sat by his side on a fur blanket. She urged him to sit down and continue his rest with a gentle pressing of her hand on his forehead. Toothless seemed puzzled as to why she was here, but didn't disobey her insistence as he laid down again. His eyes crossed inwards a little to stare up at her, the dragon's confusion obvious when an equally confused sounding noise rumbled into her touch. Either way, he was happy to have her near him again. Valka simply smiled at the dragon as she stroked along his head spikes.
"You got spooked by something fierce out there," she explained. "Stoick and Gobber are checking the island to see if there's anything that caused it. And I suppose I thought I'd stay to... make sure you were alright." The Night Fury blinked, continuing to stare into her eyes. Her answer seemed a bit evasive.

About an hour or so ago, Valka had spoken with her husband about what they should do after the mess at the shop. Together, they had formed a plan to get things back on track. As brutal as it sounded to reduce the situation to mere words and tactics, an out of control Alpha was not what Berk needed right now, not when the other dragons relied on the presence of a leader to keep them focused on their tasks. Stoick had vowed to double check whether someone was deliberately trying to set Toothless off, some sort of remnant trick or trap that Drago had somehow managed to leave behind in his wake. It was unlikely that they'd find anything to really explain it, but he'd try at the very least. It would be just like that snake to have left something that would manipulate events in his favor. At the same time, that left Valka to volunteer for the hardest task of all. As the only one who could really have anywhere near the same skill with dragons as Hiccup did, it fell to her to deal with Toothless directly. Even right now, she wasn't completely sure about how she was going to approach this. But it needed to be done for the dragon's sake and everyone else's. Valka had asked Cloudjumper to keep an eye on things around the island for her, the Stormcutter knowing that she would need space and time to do this right. He knew her plan all too well, especially since she had done the same thing for him only a few years ago. When a fellow dragon had been lost to one of Drago's traps in one of the more brutal clashes with the madman, a dragon that had been extremely important to him, Valka had been the only soul who could help Cloudjumper realize the importance of not letting that negativity fester. All it ended up doing was consuming you from the inside without you knowing until it would just burst into the open, just like with Toothless. Cloudjumper hoped she could provide the same care for his Alpha. With a parting nuzzle and an air of duty about him to keep the peace for the day, he had left just moments before Valka had set up camp, as it were. And now they were here, with Valka staring down at her son's dragon as the Night Fury looked back at her in turn. She exhaled, calling on her memory of helping her own dragon through that difficult time to ease Toothless' burden. She was prepared.

"So how long are we doing this for again?"
"As long as it takes."
"And how long's that?"
"I don't know, Gobber. Being thorough takes time."
"We've checked the entire village over, Stoick. There isn't a single trace of anything unusual that could've spooked the Night Fury that bad. Certainly nothing that Bludvist could've done on his own."
"Well, there had to be something! Toothless doesn't act like that, he just doesn't." Stoick knew that his friend had a point though. They had spent the last few hours searching fruitlessly around the shop, around the village center, around every place that Toothless had been yesterday. It had been tricky to be detailed in their examinations since all the repairs were still ongoing, but they'd done it and subsequently found nothing. There was only one single place they hadn't checked yet. The elder's hut had been the last place that his wife and the Night Fury had visited before the chaos at the workshop. The chief grumbled to himself as the pair of them walked up the steep ramp. There had be some reason for his son's dragon's odd behavior. What on earth could've done it? If it turned out to be one of the old woman's potions, Stoick would be livid.
"Oh, Thor almighty..." Gobber complained, stretching his shoulders out with a rather sickly sounding pop of his joints. "You'd think it'd be something simple like an eel, wouldn't you? You know, something easy for a change. But no, it just has to be something that's practically invisible."
"Would't be Berk if it was easy, " Stoick replied simply. "We've dealt with worse dragon incidents than this, Gobber. I'm sure it'll be sorted once Val does her part too."
"Hopefully. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being one of the trolls getting up to no good again."
"What have I told you about bringing up the trolls?"
"Hey, hey, don't blame me for just trying to think!" Gobber shrugged. "Who's to say they couldn't cause dragons to go crazy at the same time, huh?"
Stoick rolled his eyes. They were getting nowhere fast. Hopefully Gothi would give them at least some sort of insight, his towering bulk seeming to almost be as large as the house itself. His fist seemed to forget how to be gentle as it banged against the door in Stoick's version of a 'light knock'. Only a few seconds past before the door swung open, the obviously grumpy face of Gothi peering up at the chief as she hobbled outside. Stoick bowed his head, offering an apologetic face for forgetting his own strength.
"Forgive the intrusion, elder. We just needed to talk, about what happened yesterday." Gothi raised one of her brows and simply nodded her head, sliding the door behind her closed as she slowly made her way forwards to the usual spot for communicating. Gobber stood ready to act as a translator, curious to see what the old woman would say. Or write. Whatever one would prefer. Stoick knelt down before her, keeping his voice gentle. Even the chief had to consider the elder of the village with respect, it had always been that way.
"Gothi. Val and Toothless came to see you yesterday, didn't they?" Gothi nodded her head, starting to drag the end of her staff into the loose pile of sand that she kept nearby to explain the situation. Gobber peered down at her writing to make sense of it.
"Yes, they had arrived just before the dragon lost control," Gobber translated. "She says that they came up to get some more healing...spit? Well, that doesn't sound good for heali-OW!" The Viking didn't have a chance to finish his sentence before Gothi whacked him on the head with the sharp end of her staff. He needed to stop misreading her letters, he'd taken enough bashes to the cranium as it was. "Argh, sorry! Healing salve. After that, they just left."
"And nothing else? Nothing out of the ordinary or unusual?" Stoick asked. To the chief's surprise, Gothi hesitated in writing down the next part, her face contorting to show an expression of indecision. He noticed it immediately, leaning in closer to the elder before she wrote again.
"She says there was nothing wrong with Valka that she could see," Gobber said. "But the dragon had... something about him." Well, that was obvious to anyone. Toothless had been struggling to keep his emotions at bay during the repairs. But both Stoick and his companion looked concerned. Gothi didn't seem to be talking about that. Was something wrong with Toothless that they couldn't see?
"What do you mean by 'something'? Is Toothless in danger?"
"She says no. It wasn't something wrong with him personally. It was something else. Something was with him, following him."
"An intruder?" Stoick asked with alarm. "Someone you spotted? One of Drago's men?" Gothi shook her head, grunting with a pause to think of the best way to phrase this. It would sound absurd, like madness even. But there was no other way she could think to explain it.
"There was a presence. She says she could sense it, always near the dragon's side. It disappeared after he went mad, but she could still tell it was there all the way back down to the shop." Gobber looked at Stoick, raising a brow at his lack of being convinced. "Honestly, I think I preferred my troll explanation to invisible draugr."
"I don't think we have a case of ghosts, Gobber," Stoick mumbled, looking back down at the elder. "Are you sure, Gothi? Maybe you were just confused." A sudden rapid scrawling into the ground with a furious scowl soon answered that question.
"Hey, language!" Gobber warned. "And no, for your information, we don't think you're senile either. Just wasn't expecting to deal with literal phantoms today." Satisfied with that admission, Gothi continued to scrawl.
"She says that whatever it was, it's like something that had been trapped between our world and the next. And it anchored itself around Toothless, like it was trying to use him to get through to us." Stoick rolled his eyes a little. He knew Gothi was eccentric, it seemed to be a required trait if you were to be a mystic who was stuck in the old ways. Spirits and tales of draugr and whatnot seemed to be the norm when they consulted her for things they couldn't explain. But this was a little far fetched, even for her. He'd play along for now.
"Alright then. Did you, uh... recognize anything about the presence? Something that would've set Toothless off like that?" Gothi nodded, drawing in a final set of curves to her drawings to emphasis the point.
"She said that its aura reminded her of someone. It was stubborn, headstrong. Great sense of care. She says it kind of reminded her of...you, Stoick." Stoick's eyes widened, his voice deliberately slow as if to confirm he had heard that correctly.
"...what did you say?"
"She says it reminded her of..." Gobber trailed off, his eyes widening at the last word Gothi wrote. The old woman merely nodded her head, fully anticipating the reaction. "...Hiccup." Stoick immediately scowled, rising to his feet. He gave a very short bow before turning away to head down the ramp, Gobber hurrying after him.
"Stoick, where are you going?"
The chief didn't answer him and just kept walking. He wasn't sure whether to be insulted or confused. That elder had to be wrong, she had to. How on earth could that have been Hiccup? Hiccup was gone. He wasn't trapped anywhere, he certainly wasn't a damn ghost. He was in Valhalla where he should be. They had put this to rest weeks ago, to bring all that hope back after so long was just cruel to consider, almost at the same level as Drago. Regardless of what Stoick tried however, the seed of doubt had already been planted. What Gothi had sensed couldn't have been Hiccup. Unless... something had stopped him getting to Valhalla. If they'd done something wrong during that ceremony, then maybe she was telling the truth. She had been right about plenty before, mystical or otherwise, and she had no reason to lie to him in some false platitude of his son still being with them.
But it was ridiculous to consider after all this time. It was painful to consider after all this time. Wasn't it?

"Toothless," Valka started, grabbing his full attention as her hands continued to stroke around his ear plates. "You've been so very brave over the last month. I know you've been trying your hardest to be a good Alpha, you really have been. You're almost a natural with how you've helped the others rebuild. But, beneath it all... I know your heart lies elsewhere still." The dragon hummed at her words and deliberately pretended not to know what she was talking about, his gaze wandering off to the side. Valka had anticipated this. It was this very problem she was trying to fix. She carried on, making sure Toothless would hear it by holding his head still.
"Listen. Ever since we watched him sail to Valhalla, you've tried to keep all of it bottled inside. I know you have, you're doing it now. You've tried to be stronger than you've ever been before to help everyone else and I know that Hiccup would adore you for being so selfless." She paused, continuing to brush over the dragon's head like she was comforting one of the babies back at the Sanctuary. Perhaps in a way, that's how she saw Toothless right now. Alone and scared. "But then yesterday happened. It got too much to contain and you couldn't control yourself. You could've hurt someone, you could've hurt yourself."
Toothless huffed weakly. It wasn't just him 'losing control', he had seen Hiccup, he had! And yet... at the same time, no one else did. As much as he hated to admit it, he knew there was some element of truth to Valka's words, especially as they were said in that stern mothering tone of hers. Maybe he hadn't seen Hiccup after all. As Valka said, maybe it had just gotten too much to take.
"I know how it feels. Because I did the same," Valka admitted, her own expression faltering at having to admit this to anyone but Stoick. But her familiarity with the situation was all too relatable and it would drive the point home. Toothless perked in surprise at hearing that admission, focusing his eyes back on her own. She leaned back away from him for a moment, staring off towards the hole in the roof at the afternoon sky. "When we came home, I had tried to use the battle against Drago as an excuse to focus on what we had to do. But when it was over, I struggled to balance what I should be doing with what my heart wanted to do. Even though I was trying my hardest to integrate back into life here, all that pain kept building within me no matter how much I tried to hide it from everyone else. Stoick saw it, Cloudjumper saw it, everyone saw it except me. So, I made a decision. I hid myself away from everything with Stoick. I didn't come out for days. I cried for Hiccup with him, I mourned with him, I raged and wanted to destroy... and in the end, I let all of that sorrow out because I knew it was going to corrupt me if I didn't. And it's OK to do that, beautiful. It's OK to grieve, it's OK to miss someone you care for deeply. Letting that sadness out to go free doesn't mean you have to forget them. But if you let it build for as long as you can stand, then it's going to poison you, Toothless. It already is."
The Night Fury's jaw slightly opened as he crooned at her, brushing his snout against her stomach. He had no idea that she had suffered just as much as he had. He had been too selfishly caught up in his emotional wall building to even notice that time she had disappeared from daily Berk life. He felt a little ill with guilt at hearing it. If he lost control like that again, then he would hurt someone. He thought he was remaining connected to Hiccup by keeping those feelings inside him, but it hadn't done what he thought. And what about the other dragons? Would they be lost too if he was lost to himself? He would be the worst Alpha there ever had been.
"I know it's not what you think you want." Valka continued. "It's not what any of us want when this happens. But you can't do this to yourself, Toothless. I know you won't forget him, never forget him. But let him go onward to Valhalla. It would break his heart to see you suffer like this."

"She's right, bud. You need to... let me go."
Hiccup's voice was weary as he spoke. He was sat only a few feet away from them both, knees hunched up as his head rested on his arm. He still hadn't gotten used to how they couldn't see him, though it was unsurprising given the circumstances. Would they even want to, especially with this never healing wound he still bore in his stomach? It wasn't exactly the prettiest thing.
"You know... not that you can hear me or anything." He had been here most of the previous evening as a silent observer, watching his dragon sleep and making sure he did properly. After all, it had been his fault that Toothless had attacked the shop so he wanted to make sure that the Night Fury faced no lasting repercussions from it. Valka was right with what she said. Hiccup hated seeing his other half in such distress. He didn't want to be the thing that stopped them all from moving on, that stopped his dragon from being the majestic Alpha he knew he could be. He wanted Toothless to be happy. A big ask for a dragon who only ever seemed happy when they were together. Hiccup would kill to experience that again, the warmth of his best friend's scale against his now eternally cold skin. But it was not to be, as much as he was still walking around down here rather in Valhalla.
"Maybe it's why I'm still here. Because you.. can't let me go," Hiccup wondered aloud, knowing that no one would be able to hear him no matter how loudly he talked. His voice starting to crack the more he carried on. "I... I-I don't want to let you go either, bud. I wish I could be sat there with you too, I wish I could make it all better, I wish that I could just... hold you, just once. But, I'm not supposed to be here. I'm... just a burden to everyone if I stay."
Those last few words made Hiccup clench his teeth, his fists tightening against his leather bracers. Funny how life (and death) had a way of making things come full circle. He sighed, rubbing at his exhausted eyes. When he had first 'come back', he had found himself wandering an empty world. It had looked the same as when he were alive, the buildings and structures exactly as they were when he walked among the other Vikings. But with no one else there to occupy them. Unable to settle for that and because of his nature as a rule breaker, Hiccup had tried to find a way to see how his home had coped in absence. He soon discovered he could force himself to see what everyone else he'd left behind was doing, all he had to do was concentrate and try to anchor himself in place. Then he could glimpse into the living world. But that was about all he could do. He couldn't interact with any of them. The closest he'd gotten had been during the battle with Drago and that had proved nearly stressful enough to kill him all over again. He had done it only yesterday at Gothi's hut to make sure Toothless was healing up nicely. The shop had been an accident. Somehow, Toothless had managed to see him and he still didn't know how. He'd done a terrible thing by making his dragon hope. Hope was a cruel thing when against the impossible and Hiccup still felt guilty about it. Now, here he was, his mother and dragon before him as if he were sitting in the same room. It was why Hiccup was looking and feeling tired. Not from lack of sleep, no need to sleep when you're dead. But the sheer force of will he was having to exert to just to see them.
"And here I was thinking that the afterlife would be one great party with all the drinking and killing I could wish for." Hiccup's dark sense of humor hadn't faded even despite his death. The young Viking exhaled shakily, daring himself to outstretch a hand and try and touch Toothless' leg. Surely the gods would let him do that for his closest friend? Naturally, his fingers drifted through the dragon's limb like they were nothing but mist.
"Ah, you guys really do hate me, don't you?" he grumbled to himself dryly. He shook his head. He had no reason to think that would work a second time. He leaned back and just continued to watch. At the very least, one of the perks of his situation was how he could watch his mother work. Who knows, maybe he'd pick up a few more tricks before he went off to Valhalla. Maybe they had some dragons that needed taming.
"Trust her, bud," he found himself mumbling out loud. "She just wants to help you. "

Toothless felt a sudden insistence at the back of his mind, like a thought that was urging him to comply with Valka's orders. Not wanting to question where it came from, he suddenly nuzzled his snout against her hands, treasuring the comforting warmth she brought when she spoke. He had never known a warmth like it. It wasn't like the feeling he felt when he was around Hiccup, but it wasn't any less pleasant to feel and he couldn't really think as to why. It felt... parental. Like if he was simply a youngling and she was the one who cared for him. It felt nearly alien at the same time. Maternal, enlightening, words he didn't even know. The earliest days Toothless could remember from his own childhood had been serving the Red Death, ever since he had been barely old enough to fly. Whatever parental figures had been in his life had been long lost to the records of time. He hadn't really known what being with them had felt like, but with Valka, he was certainly getting an idea. Though nothing could ever replace the connection he shared with Hiccup, Toothless felt something nearly as unique when he was by his human's mother. Almost like she was acting as his own mother by proxy. Of course, it was silly to consider. Maybe the pair of them losing Hiccup had been what had drawn them to one another. But at the same time, it felt right. If Hiccup was his soul mate, his brother and other half, then why couldn't Valka be a parent to him as well? Stoick had been ever since they had known one another properly. The sole Dragon Master smiled just as warmly when she responded to his worried sounds, her hands still trailing gently around his more prominent scales. The dragon whimpered. The emotions were starting to build regardless of whether he was subconsciously still trying to hide them.

'Would Hiccup... want me to do that?'

He had always thought that keeping all of this pain locked away was what Hiccup wanted. An Alpha needed to be strong for the sake of everyone else, just as a chief would protect his own. But he had misunderstood. Hiccup wouldn't have wanted him to simply hide those feelings inside, he would've wanted them gone so they wouldn't be a weight on the dragon's shoulders anymore. Especially if the Viking was the source of it. The Night Fury peered up at Valka, his expression seeming like it was asking for help. Valka hushed him with gentle utterances, moving her body a little closer to support the dragon's head. Such a young soul he was, those eyes vibrant even despite his sorrow. It reminded her of Hiccup when he was a baby, the way that he looked scared what was to come his way and yet still so full of energy and life. Her instincts manifested themselves at that thought as she started to speak.
"I'll be with you for as long as it takes, dear. Me, Stoick, Cloudjumper, all of us. We're your family. But you have to let Hiccup go. Let it all go."
Toothless would've been lost for words if he had the capacity to speak. Valka's patience and actions continued to comfort him, even as it conflicted with the heavy sadness clinging to his chest like an iron weight. The Night Fury sniffed once. He knew what this was supposed to be. This was supposed to be a goodbye wasn't it? It felt so... final. And that's what finally broke down that dam. As expected, every negative feeling he'd kept inside came bubbling to the surface as the dragon moved. All of the aching pain, the sadness that had gripped his heart, the Night Fury just let it come when he shuffled himself towards Valka. She winced at the noise Tootless made as he buried his head into her arms. There were no horrendous noises or tears this time. This wasn't like the the funeral or after the battle with Drago or even yesterday. Toothless' grief this time was much simpler, occasionally letting out a sad croon as he became lost in memories of his other half. He was surprisingly calm, even though Valka could feel him move the odd time against her stomach. No, this would be the last time he would be controlled by sadness over his human's death. He would not make his Hiccup sad anymore. He knew that if Hiccup was watching he'd want the same thing.
"There you are, it's OK..." Valka cooed, brushing over Toothless' head as he shakily exhaled. He thought of a final word on it, temporary as it was in his mind. He would still hold that dream of one day seeing his human again in his heart. But his proxy mother was right and he loved her for setting his thoughts straight.

'My Hiccup... I... I still want to bring you home, even if I don't know how. But I'm sorry. I won't be sad anymore, I promise. Until we meet again, I promise I won't be sad again.'

Hiccup thought that he'd become numb to his predicament as the weeks had passed by, but whenever it involved his beloved Night Fury, that always stirred the feelings again. At the same time, however, he knew it was for the best. He was proud of the dragon for remaining controlled, even though he was letting all of his emotions free. He even dared a smile. Though he knew Toothless couldn't hear him, he was whispering his own words of encouragement, moving forward on his knees to come close to his mother's side. As much as he could probably speak to Toothless if he tried, he didn't want to give his dragon that sense of false hope again, it would be too harsh. He wanted Toothless to carry on.
"I know it'll be hard, bud, I know. But I am so proud of you." he whispered, about to stretch out an arm to touch his dragon before remembering that he couldn't. "I'll see you again one day, Toothless. I promise. I love you." Hiccup leaned his head in, mimicking their usual gesture of nuzzling one another without actually making contact before he sighed, sitting back on his legs. He turned his attention towards his mother, her own gaze glossed over whilst her body only moved whenever Toothless did against her. She seemed lost in thought too. Hiccup's shoulders relaxed as he stood up. When this was over, when Toothless had finally let his grief end, he would probably disappear. Or so he would guess. Off to Valhalla at last when the Valkyries came. His fingers lightly ran over Valka's shoulder, once again seeming to pass through it as if it weren't there. As his concentration relaxed and the sight of his dragon and mother started to fade, Hiccup only spoke once. Futile effort or not, it felt appropriate to say.
"Keep him safe for me, OK, Mom?"

At that moment, Valka felt a chill run through her. Not just a sudden hint of being cold, an actual feeling of something frozen brushing against her shoulder. A noticeable shiver ran its way down her spine as she was broken out of her thoughtful trance. One of her hands idly touched the spot that felt like it had been frozen. Something had touched her, that she was certain of it. But there was no one else here and it wasn't like the roof was leaking or anything.
What was that...?

They sat for what felt like hours. Valka just stayed with Toothless without saying a word, the dragon not wanting to leave her side as his mind now focused on the happier times with Hiccup. He even braved a smile every now and then. That's what she wanted to see. The fond remembrances, not the pain. That was how you properly remembered someone who was gone. Still, the question of what had touched her kept replaying in her head, just as her attention was grabbed by the sound of the door swinging open downstairs. Toothless raised his head at the sound, his eyes half-lidded. Valka lowered her palm to ensure he stayed where he was.
"It's alright, babe, I'll be right back, OK?" she hushed, pressing her fingers against the Night Fury's nose. With quiet, graceful movements, Valka used her staff to near silently swing down from the upstairs floor to the ground, making Stoick jump from how his wife had suddenly landed in front of him.
"Val, you really need to give me more warning when you do that..."
"Sorry, " she said with a shrug, setting her staff down on the nearby table. "Old habits die hard."
"Any luck with him?"
"I think so. I just did what I thought came natural. I think he'll be OK."
"Good, good." Valka frowned when she noticed her husband pulling the same face. He seemed troubled, nearly angry, almost like he wasn't paying attention to her achievements this morning.
"Stoick, what's wrong? What is it?" The chief huffed, sliding his helmet off his head as it clattered to the tabletop. He sat down, Valka quickly sitting opposite him as he did so.
"I spoke with the elder. She said she knew what happened yesterday."
"She did? I didn't know she'd seen anything from up there. What was it?"
"... she said she could sense something following Toothless. That's what set him off."
"That's no cause for concern, is it?" Valka asked. "You know what mystics are like. Besides, Toothless will be fine now, we saw to tha-"
"She said it was him, Val," Stoick interrupted. "She said that something was anchoring itself on Toothless and it reminded her of him." Valka turned silent. She shook her head, her previous advice to Toothless about letting go seeming to fail when it came to her. Hope was a cruel thing indeed.
"N-No, Stoick, don't say that, that can't be right. She has to be mistaken."
"I don't know. I honestly don't know," Stoick said with a grumble, his brow lowered and teeth clenched. As Valka tried to take in this suggestion, her mind glanced back to earlier upstairs. When something had touched her. Something very cold, almost unnaturally so. And then she made another guess when it came to Toothless. When he had lost control, he was scratching at the shields like he had seen something reflected back at him.
Could it be...?
Valka shook her head to rid herself of such stupid speculation when Stoick broke the silence.
"What if... what if we did something wrong during the ceremony? What if what we did meant he never made it to Valhalla? What if he's still..."
"Stoick, no, that's not it," Valka insisted, taking a hold of her husband's hands as much as they enveloped her own to try and be the voice of reason. For her own peace of mind as well as his. "When someone dies, they are either taken to Valhalla, Fólkvangr or go to meet Hel. There is no in between for a person to linger in. Only the draugr can return and they haunt the burial mounds, not villages. He isn't here, she's wrong." Stoick nodded his head. His wife was probably right in what she was saying. Nothing about their legends and knowledge of the afterlife had mentioned anything about some sort of purgatory. The prospect of having condemned his son to something like that had just made him angry to think about, mostly at himself. He smiled, squeezing her hands back with as gentle a pressure as those rough palms could handle.
"I know, I know, you're right. I just... I hoped that I hadn't..." Words failed him as he waved a palm to try and dismiss the thought. "I don't know what I'd do with you, Val."
"I'm sure you'd manage. But luckily it won't come to that again," she replied with a soft smile, as quickly as it faltered now her imagination was running with the idea. Just like her husband, that seed of doubt had begun to sprout. And it had also managed to germinate inside the mind of an eavesdropping dragon who peering over the edge of the top floor down at the two Vikings.

"He was with me...? Is that why the old one was staring at me? Is my Hiccup in danger...?"

Toothless knew that what he was beginning to think was wrong. After his proxy mother had helped him learn to let go of all of the feelings surrounding his rider's death, here was the opportunity to reverse it all if he tried. Did he dare to hope again? Was his Hiccup still out there, wandering the island? He could bring him back, he could finally allow Stoick and Valka to have their family complete, as they always should've done before Drago's attack. And he wouldn't have to spend a night alone again. The Night Fury retreated away from the floor's edge as he thought to himself. Should he try to find him? After all, he had only promised that he wouldn't be sad anymore. He'd let the grief go as best he could and he had vowed to live with it even if there were days it got difficult. He hadn't promised that he would give up on his fantasy of bringing his rider home. But at the same time, he had a job to do. He was the Alpha, he was the 'king' of the dragons on Berk. They needed him to keep the peace and protect them from whatever the world would throw at their tiny island next and he knew that the world would do just that. He couldn't just abandon them all. The Night Fury huffed as he sat down again to think. His head was a jumble of conflicting information as he looked over where Hiccup used to sit at his desk.

'Hiccup, what should I do?'

He assumed Hiccup would probably disobey what was expected for the sake of something he cared about. But... the dragon didn't want to cause any more trouble.
Tonight. Tonight he would decide.

The rest of the day followed without any further incident. Toothless had decided to brave the outside world again, resuming his part in his duties and reunions with those he had come to call friends. He aided in the repairs by using his flame, teeth and claws to weld and cut some of the tougher structures and cutting apart the ice shards still scattered around some of the higher areas had felt rather fun, or at least the closest to fun he could remember after all this time. He had caught up with Stormfly, Hookfang and the others, the rest of the dragons seeming to be rather pleased their Night Fury companion was mostly back to normal. The other riders seemed equally as happy to have him back, especially Astrid. Toothless had always liked to see her smile almost as much as Hiccup. In a way, the dragon even felt a slight hint of smugness with his new role as the Alpha. He may not have had all of his usually boundless energy back yet, but it was slowly starting to return thanks to Valka's help. Even Cloudjumper hadn't seemed to mind when the Night Fury had tried to nestle beneath his wings again as thanks for doing the same a few days ago. The Alpha had truly returned. However, what most of them didn't know was that Toothless was deliberately holding back. He would need to preserve his energy for whatever was going to come tonight. Tonight was the night he would set off to find Hiccup. He would have to be quick and he would have to be precise so that he would not be gone for too long. He didn't want to let anyone else down, but he couldn't resist the chance to do something, even if they would probably find it to be a fool's errand. Maybe some of Hiccup's rebellious nature had rubbed off on him. At the house, Toothless had heard mention of the burial mounds when Stoick and Valka were talking. They were apparently the places that those who hadn't truly left stayed near, 'draugr' they called them. He wondered if that was what Hiccup was now. Anyway, Hiccup had shown him such structures in the more mountainous regions of the island many years ago back in the early days of them getting to know each other, deep in the forest. Toothless guessed they may give him a way to reach him. If he could just remember where to go...

As the island was blanketed in the darkness of the night and the rest of the village slumbered deeply, Toothless waited for the opportune moment. He stared up through the gap in the house's roof, the stars shining brilliantly in his eyes. That was something he and Hiccup always loved to do on the clear evenings, the little pin pricks of light seeming close enough to touch. Toothless raised one of his legs up as if to do just that, his paw trying to bat at one particular constellation as if he could bring it close. When Hiccup was back, he'd fly them both up there. He'd take them up higher than they'd ever been before. Toothless lowered his leg back down and slowly crept over to the floor's edge. Both Stoick and Valka rested together, with Cloudjumper sat not a few feet away from them next to the crackling fire. This was the time to make his move.

'I won't be long, new father and mother. I'll be back with him too.'

With that statement in his head as a silent promise, Toothless whirled around. He reached down to the ground where most of Hiccup's old saddle equipment had been laying, untouched since Astrid had taken it off during the Drago fight. Luckily for Toothless, it had been tidied away into a bag for convenience, one that he grabbed with his jaws. He crouched for a moment before his body leapt towards the roof opening. With a little scratching of his claws on the wood, the dragon soon found himself outside in the cool air, his ear plates perched high to check he hadn't woken anyone up. Convinced he had managed to get away with his 'escape', Toothless gracefully jumped down to the ground level and began to hurry to the back of the house, out to where the trees began to envelope the island. He grunted as his teeth kept a tight grip on the bag of heavy saddle parts, the Night Fury pushing past the slight discomfort to reach the burial mounds. Hiccup had said that other generations of his family rested there, so it made sense that this would be where he could probably find his rider. Minutes ticked on by as the dragon ran, darting between the trees and rocks like he had all those years ago to the arena. It seemed fitting to remember that. Toothless didn't know how long it would take him to reach it, but he could at least hope he was making good time. Hiccup would be impressed.

Toothless eventually found his goal, even though he had threatened to get himself a little lost earlier by taking the odd wrong turn. But he had made it. Not far from the cove where he had first met his other half, the burial mounds of Berk. For somewhere so far away, there must have been an organised cluster of about 20 different ones, their contents unknown. According to Hiccup, they used be used as places for ancestral worship before the Dragon Wars made it nearly impossible to reach the site. The dragon assumed that they never got around to coming back here after the Wars had ceased. He took some cautious steps forward, hoping that he wasn't breaking some Viking rule by setting foot near them, but quickly relaxed when the heavens didn't open and strike him down. The Night Fury set the bag in his mouth down, stretching his aching jaws out as he began to look around the site. Now what? He hadn't thought this next part through enough yet. If Hiccup was here, then maybe he could try calling out to him. The dragon vibrated his usual affectionate noises, the sounds seeming to rumble off the dense foliage that surrounded the mounds. There was no immediate response. Toothless frowned as he tried a more insistent tone, pressing into the ground with one of his claws. Still no response. He scowled, picking up the bag again and beginning to walk in between the lumps of raised ground. Maybe he just needed to do it near a specific one or something? It was worth a shot. For the next few minutes, Toothless did just that, trying out every mound in the hopes that maybe one of them would give him a connection to his Hiccup. Yet each attempt was fruitless, the forest only growing darker by the hour as the deep night startled to settle in. The Night Fury huffed. This would be much easier if he knew what exactly to look for. But he didn't have to wait much longer when a peculiar thing caught his eyes. Nestled in between some of the largest burial mounds, right near the back of all of them, was a hole. Not just a simple crack from where the ground surrounding it had been raised, but a full sized dug out hole. Toothless drew near it, his pupils widening in the dark to give him a better sense of vision. The hole itself looked only big enough to fit a person, the edges worn and splintered like something had forced its way out from the under the ground. The idea of that alone made the Night Fury shiver, drawing his nose close to the hole to inspect it more thoroughly. To his surprise, it didn't seem to have an end. There was no bottom to the excavated space that he could see and Toothless could make out nothing but the deepest black when he peered into the void. What could have caused it? Had someone just dug so far down that it was impossible to see in the dark? Or... had something tried to dig its way out? Toothless inhaled, trying to get some clues from the smells. He perked up when he recognized one almost immediately. It was him. He had been here. Curiously, it was not coming out of the hole like something had left the space before he got there. This was going inwards, like what he was sensing had ventured down into it.

'Hiccup... could you really be down there?'

Toothless warbled into the hole, the sound echoing from the walls of soil that lined the slightly narrow passage. Once again, there was no answer, but his sense of smell never lied to him. Hiccup had been here. And if he was down in such a dark awful place, then his human must have been really scared. The fact that Hiccup was dead and burned didn't even occur to Toothless as his mind went wild with the thoughts of protecting his rider from whatever harms awaited down there, illogical as it was. Now he had a choice to make. He could try and get help, get some of the other villagers to see what this thing was. Or he could venture in alone to get Hiccup out of there as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, nature seemed to have made the choice for him.

As Toothless stood near the edge of this gaping maw in the ground, the ground near its edge suddenly crumbled under his feet, falling into the blackness. The Night Fury yelped in surprise as he lost his balance, trying to fight better footing as his eyes widened in panic. The hole was getting bigger, noticeable cracks in the ground staring to run under his body as he futilely tried to hang on. A horrendous grinding noise of rock and crumbling soil pierced his ears as he whined in pain, his wings flaring out to try and add to his ever failing sense of balance. He didn't have chance to see how effectual it was. In a matter of seconds, a large chunk of the ground gave way, Toothless' limbs sinking through the newly open space like it hadn't been there in the first place. With a panicked croon, the dragon clawed into the walls of the hole, desperately trying to hang on. The bag he was carrying whipped past his head as it fell, Hiccup's equipment disappearing from view as the Night Fury clung to the edges.

'H-Hiccup! Hiccup, help me!'

Toothless' claws slipped, the ground simply not strong enough to support his weight. Leaving claw marks as he went, the dragon roared in alarm as he suddenly tumbled away from the surface and into the darkness. The hole entrance seemed to grow smaller in his vision as he fell, even as he writhed and struggled and scraped his wings against the rock. It became so small, it almost reminded him of those pin prick stars he had been looking at only moments ago today. As Toothless' roars became steadily quieter on the surface the further he fell, the hole entrance began to reform, soil and roots seeming to grow almost organically to leave behind no trace anyone was ever there.

The forest grew silent.