So from here, there will be several point of views ranging from Stoick, to Toothless, to Astrid, to Fishlegs, etc. However, Hiccup's POV won't be included. The point of the story is to try to decipher what happened to her with no idea of where she went or the hardships she had to go through. But until then, the village has got some thinking (and panicking) to do.

Friendly reminder that:

Fem!Hiccup is still Hiccup

Male!Astrid is Astrin

Chapter Three: Divisi

They had to have circled the whole island a total of five times by the time the sun came up. None of them had slept for a minute, despite their eyes becoming slowly heavier and heavier as the adrenaline wore off. Hel, all any of the teens ate before rushing around the forest and beach and temple was the pile of berries Fishlegs had picked earlier.

Astrin told himself that it would be worth it as soon as they found Hiccup. That's all he needed.

But they hadn't found her. Not laying on the beach, not hiding somewhere between the trees, not searching around that old, gods-forsaken temple.

"Anything?" he asked wearily when the group met back up at the campsite. He already knew the answer, though, seeing all their forlorn faces and dark circles under their eyes.

A chorus of "No"s followed.

He sighed, balling his hands into fists and digging them into his eyes. "Dammit. What the hel are we going to do?" Tiredly, he jumped off of Stormfly, sand creating a cloud around his feet. "Where could she have gone?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, man," Snotlout breathed, leaning against one of Hookfang's horns. "We've searched this place, like, a million times, and there's still no sign of her."

Toothless whined softly, rounded pupils downcast.

Astrin frowned and made his way over to the black dragon, patting his snout reassuringly. "I'm sure we'll find her, okay Toothless? Don't worry. Everything will be okay."

"Uh, are you sure about that?" Ruffnut said dryly.

He gasped and whirled around to face the twin, eyes set into serpentine slits. "Seriously, Ruffnut? What's your problem?" he asked incredulously, crossing his arms over his chest.

She threw her hands in the air. "What? I'm just stating the facts. Hiccup's nowhere on this island! Just accept that!"

Astrin only seethed more, clenching his teeth. "You don't know that! Maybe she just-"

"Look, Astrin. If she was here, even if we couldn't see her, our dragons would have been able to sniff her out! Toothless, especially!"

"And the last place they smelt her was where the torch and berries are," Tuffnut finished. "And if she had walked away, or even if she was taken by another dragon-"

"They still would have been able to smell her down. But they didn't."

The Hofferson's glare faltered, but he still didn't let down. "Our dragons aren't for tracking-"

"Yours is," Tuffnut cut her off*.

Astrin tore his scowl away from the male twin to examine all of his other friends. All of them were off their dragons by now, staring uncertainly at the ground, flinching slightly when his gaze fell on them. "Seriously, do you all just think she's dea-"

"No, we'd be able to track her body if that was the case," Fishlegs interjected.

"Really, Fishlegs? You too?" Astrin scoffed. The Ingerman was always on his side, so why wouldn't he be now? Especially with something as important as finding the missing heir to the chiefdom of Berk!

"You're tired, Astrin. We're all tired," Fishlegs said genlty, softly, soothingly. "None of us are thinking straight, okay? We need some rest."

The tall blond's vision filled with red. The larger boy was talking to him as if Astrin was a scared, rogue dragon! Like he was nothing but a deranged little boy who woke up terrified after a nightmare. The nerve of it! Their friend was missing – missing! And all they wanted to do was lay around while Hiccup was gods knows where!

He opened and shut his mouth several times, trying to find the right words to express how lazy and uncaring the group around him was. Gods, his blood was boiling with anger, and if he didn't snap something out soon, he was going to hit something. Most likely Snotlout (just because he was annoying and looked just about ready to pass out).

Closing his eyes, Astrin blocked out the oncoming rays of the sun beginning to brighten and his friends, and took in one large breath. No, the anger wouldn't held him now, that would only make him more irrational. All he needed right now was to hop back on Stormfly and look for his friend.

Eyes finally opened as he exhaled, feeling his heart dropping in speed. He looked at his friends, expression cool and collected. "Just remember this: Hiccup would have flown to the edge of the world to find you – any of you."

And with that, he hopped on his dragon and took off.

Astrin had come back later, after the sun was fully up and about to hit the middle of the sky. The group spent the day sleeping and scarfing down all the food they could. All of them were still jumpy, and once in a while, when they heard a sound coming from the trees, they mistook the sounds for Hiccup and ran over.

It was never her, though.

And they hadn't really slept that much. By the time they were all awake, the sun was still up and was just barely tipping down for the evening.

"What are we gonna do?" Tuffnut asked after everyone had finished eating, all of them sitting around the fire Meatlug lit for them.

Fishlegs half expected to hear Hiccup excitedly explaining what their plan would be for the rest of the day. Of course, though, all he was met with was contemplating hums and downcast sighs. From the looks of dismay on the faces of the other teens, he guessed that they all were waiting for the chief's daughter's voice to reach their ears.

"We need to go back to the village, right? And tell Stoic, he'll know what to do! When doesn't he?" Snotlout suggested, leaning his elbows on his knees.

"But what if Hiccup's still here?" Astrin asked, with the most painful look on his face and eyes laced with exhaustion and worry. He had slept less than all of them, since he returned sometime after the rest of them had fallen asleep, and had woken up shortly after everyone else did.

The twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs knew by this point that, although it made absolutely no sense, Hiccup had just...disappeared. Not wandered off, kidnapped, or killed. Just...gone. Like she was here one moment and vanished in thin air the next. They had searched the whole entire island countless of times and hadn't found her. Astrin's Nadder, a tracking dragon, was unable to sniff her down! Toothless, her best friend and best bet of finding her, couldn't even find any trace of her.

But Astrin...he refused to believe that Hiccup was just somewhere right under their noses, waiting to be found. It didn't matter how many times they told him that wasn't the case, he refused to listen.

"Then Ruff and I will stay here," Tuffnut announced. "You guy brings Stoick, and while you're gone, we'll see if Hiccup shows up. What do you say?"

The group exchanged glances then nodded. Seemed simple and fair enough.

"What're we gonna do about Toothless?" Snotlout asked, nodding towards the Night Fury laying next to all the other dragons. Tired, defeated, but unable to sleep.

The poor Fury couldn't get anywhere in the air on his own. And although one of the teens could ride on him, they didn't have a clue on how the mechanics with the tail worked*, since none of them had thought they needed to learn it sometime. Fishlegs had asked Hiccup how it worked once, and she had talked about how different ropes and pulleys tugged at the fin when her foot was in a certain position, causing the tail to turn at different angles depending on the turn and whatnot. So he knew how it functioned, but not how to do the job himself, unless he wanted to accidentally bring him and Toothless to certain doom.

Well, there was that time that Hiccup had shown her father how to ride Toothless...but that had proved to be a disaster, and the dragon seemed to never want to be ridden by the Chief ever again. Ever.

"Does anyone know how to ride him?" Ruffnut asked, scanning her eyes to each of her friends.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Well, great, that's just great," Astrin muttered, suddenly filled with newfound anger. He kicked the sand before standing up, grabbing his ax off of his sleeping blanket, and beginning to walk towards the forest.

"Uh, Astrin?" Snotlout called out, blinking. "Where are you going?"

"I need to hit something!" He called back, disappearing in the bushes and trees.

"You do know we need to leave soon, right?" Fishlegs cried out. "The village is probably already expecting us anytime now!"

"I'll be back soon!"

"But-"

"Just let it go, man," Tuffnut grumbled, standing up from the ground. "I'm going to check Hiccup's bag to see if there's any manual for the tail or something."

"Why would she keep a manual if she knows how to work it already?" Ruffnut snapped, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know, in case she disappeared like she did!" Her twin glared at her, huffing something most likely offensive under his breath as he plopped in front of Hiccup's supplies and began rummaging for whatever he could find.

Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Fishlegs just sighed, the latter picking up a forgotten stick that fell from the firewood pile to sketch meaningless shapes into the sand. Thor, what were they going to do? Their friend was out there somewhere, she had to be! Nowhere on this island, but somewhere, alive and well and lost!

The large blond took a breath. Everything would be fine. They would go back to the village, tell Stoick, and he would know exactly what to do.

...right?

"Guys!" Tuffnut snapped Fishlegs out of his thoughts. "I found something!"

"Wait, did you actually find a manual?" Ruff blinked, standing up with everyone else from the sand.

"Nope! But I found something better than an old piece of paper!"

"What is it?" Snotlout inquired, walking up to the male twin.

"Do you remember that tail Hiccup made Toothless for Snoggletog? And she told us that she was only going to use it for emergencies!"

"...no way." But Snotlout was grinning none the less.

"Uh, yes way!" Tuffnut cackled, removing the fin from the bag they had assumed to only contain weapons and maps. "Guess we don't need to learn how to ride Toothless after all."

Despite all of their heavy hearts, they found a way to grin at each other and whoop in celebration.

When Astrin came back, panting and sweating and red in the face with new blisters on his fingers and palms, the teens packed up and took off – minus the twins.

Toothless tore threw the skies gracefully amongst the others, his tail fins turning and flattening without any problems. But he bore a dragging feeling, longing for his companion to come back.

Day had already blended into evening, but since all their dragons had fairly good eyesight in the dark, the group decided that they would all be fairly safe anyways. And they had wasted enough time as it was – the Chief was expecting them to be back by now, and with reports on those dragons they had totally forgotten to check up on. Oops.

Snotlout rationalized that Stoick probably wouldn't care about those dragons anymore after hearing about his missing daughter. The Chief would probably yell out "What?" almost deafeningly, like always, and march towards his Thunderdrum and take off towards the island without waiting for anyone else to follow him.

Or, he could take all of his anger out on the teens that let his daughter go missing. Snotlout was keeping his fingers crossed for the former. Although that could end with Stoick yelling at them anyway...

But that was only if they didn't find Hiccup. And with the village and Stoick's help, they would find her in no time!

At least, that's what he kept telling himself. Maybe if the Jorgeson said it to himself enough times, it would come true.

They arrived sometime in the middle of the night. Despite the torches being out most nights with only one or two vikings taking watch, Stoick, Gobber, and all of the riders' parents stood on the docks with flaming torches in their hands.

"Oh no," Astrin groaned. The teens were still in the skies, close enough to see the village and the crowd, but too far away to make out their expressions. Snotlout was currently grateful for that; he didn't want to know what was going on in the Chief's mind to not see his daughter flying with the others. "Is everyone prepared for an earful?"

"Not really." Snotlout leaned back until he was laying down on Hookfang's neck. "The Chief is going to kill us, isn't he?"

"Probably."

"Great."

"Well," Fishlegs chimed, "we might kind of deserve it for, you know, missing his daughter."

"Okay, how were we supposed to know that Hiccup would just disappear?" Snotlout challenged, scowling at the clouds fogging over the stars. "She has never done that before."

"Just shut up, Snotlout!" Astrin growled, and the brunette had no intention of looking up to see the rage on the Hofferson's face. That guy could be really frightening sometimes.

"Ohh, Stoick's looking pretty mad," Fishlegs said feebly.

Snotlout suppressed the urge to turn his Nightmare around and sat up instead, adjusting the helmet that tipped past his eyes. Berk was getting closer and closer, until Snotlout could see his family's Hall, the odd dragon or two flying away for a midnight snack, and the wide eyes and scrunched up eyebrows on Stoick's face.

"We're so dead."

And he knew it from the moment they landed right behind the small group of vikings, and the Chief's eyes followed the lone Night Fury, with the self-functioning tail Hiccup normally kept for emergencies only. "Where's Hiccup?" he asked quietly, voice full of worry and the anger they knew would be released any second now.

"Sir..." Astrin was the first to speak, easing himself off his dragon, "I – we can explain," he stuttered.

"Where's Ruffnut and Tuffnut?" a woman spoke up, pushing her way past the other vikings to stand besides Stoick. "Are they all searching for something?" the twins mother asked, uncertainty sparkling in her blue eyes.

"Ruff and Tuff are fine," Astrin reassured her before turning back to the Chief, "but, sir, we really need to talk to-"

"Ya know, you all took much longer than planned to come back," Gobber interrupted, wobbling towards the three teens, patting each one of them on the shoulder. "So did ya find those dragons?"

"Not now Gobber," the Hofferson cleared his throat, "there's something more important we need to talk about."

"Wha'? Did Hiccup lose a limb again?"

"No, she didn't, but-"

"Well that's a relief. I was afraid that girl would accidentally cut off her own arm! Almost done it a few times, that one-"

"Look, really, we need to talk about-"

"It can't be something that bad-"

"Gobber!" Stoick yelled, glaring at the blacksmith, who just shrugged and wadded his way back to the adult vikings. "Now, what is it you have to tell me?" He turned his attention back to the three, and Snotlout prayed to the gods that the Chief didn't notice their nervously shifting feet and rapid beating hearts. "Is it Hiccup?"

"Yes." It was Fishlegs who spoke this time, since Astrin looked close to losing it right then and there with his shaky breath and gulps thick with oncoming tears. "She uh...we...well..."

"...yes?" the Chief drawled, raising a thick eyebrow at the teen. "Well, spit it out, son!"

"Um..." Fishlegs folded his hand staring down at his interlocked fingers, fidgeting not-so-subtly under Stoick's gaze. "You see...uh..."

"Hiccup's missing!" Snotlout exclaimed, sweat trickling down his brows. Jeez, he didn't want to be the messenger either, but they couldn't just drag it out! The longer they kept it going, the longer it would take to find their missing friend.

Besides, it wasn't like Stoick was going to get less angry about if they wanted to tell him "delicately." Seriously, how do you tell someone that their daughter is missing delicately?

Everyone held their breaths nonetheless, squeezing their eyes shut and leaning slightly away from the Chief. They could feel it coming any second now–

"My daughter is what?"

And there it was.

Snotlout knew when he opened an eye just a sliver to see Stoick's red face, eyes the size of dragon eggs, and fingers practically making the torch he was holding splinter, that they were all going to have a long, long day.

So I wanted to make the chapter longer, but I felt like it was boring and long enough as it was, so...

I know Astrin was kind of like "Wow y'all don't care" then it went to Fishlegs and Snotlout who did sound more concerned than Astrin believed. I tried to include that thing where people misread situations, and how people perceive different conversations and different actions certain ways. While Astrin believes that none of them are worried about Hiccup, the others actually believe that it's more rational to just give it a rest and go to Stoick with the problem. I don't really like to think that there's a right or wrong way on how to approach the situation. I mean, I honestly don't know what I myself would do, so...

Next chapter is going to cover several months (or at least that's what I'm thinking right now). I don't want Hiccup to be gone from this story too long, so I'm gonna try to speed it up and stuff. Whoo.

1*Deadly Nadders are in the Tracking Class...I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong, please!

2*In HtTYD2, I never understood how Drago just randomly knew how to work Toothless's prosthetic, since it looks pretty complicated and in the first movie, it showed Hiccup, the one who invented it, struggling at first to figure out how to get Toothless to fly at certain angles. So yeah. I don't know, I just wanted to say that bothered me, and point out I'm pretty sure that unless Hiccup taught anyone else to use the tail, none of them know how to fly the Night Fury (Drago included). I know that others ride Toothless multiple times in the shows, but still, okay, it bothers me how everyone just randomly knows how to work it. So there. Which is why I included that prosthetic Hiccup made Toothless in The Gift of the Night Fury, since it seems pretty logical to keep that for emergencies.

Please leave reviews! It kind of motivates me to update quicker...*nudge nudge*