Obligatory disclaimer: HTTYD, not mine.

Please review chapters! They help out a lot with pretty much everything.

I like to believe my writing style has changed, but what I don't really know if its for the better or worse; my usage of the thesaurus has dropped, so I wanted to ask you, the readers; Has my writing style changed from Chapter 1, and now? If it so, a change for the better or worse?

Also, I've written a Toothless 'meets-a-cat-and-cuteness-erupts one-shot story. It's meant to be a cute and humorous so, check it out. (Just click my name and look at the stories I have written)

Chapter 14

Toothless bounded off, leaving Hiccup with a strong sense of gratitude for the family who had essentially helped an unknown stranger based solely off of goodwill. He immediately shook his head, snapping out of his reminiscing and back to the problem at hand; escaping. Ellen had specifically told him to use the cave as the route of escape, because of the way it crept past the eel line, but where was it? The mountain where she said it was dug through is humongous, and so must therefore, be the mountainside as well. Searching alongside it at their current speed would be a fairly efficient method, but it wouldn't exactly be the most ideal choice for finding something that was possibly hidden with nothing to go on except for the vague description of it being 'a cave'. What about the healer's house she mentioned that was close by to it? He doubt he could ask anyone for directions without a sword being swung in his direction.

But wait, wasn't the healer the one who provided the herbs for his miraculous recovery? Her house must be filled with them to be entitled the village healer, and be given the reputation of the ability to cure almost every disease.

"Toothless, smell for something with a ton of different herbs." Hiccup told his dragon.

Toothless halted, rocks and gravel shooting out in every direction as they skidded to a stop. He twitched his snout while sniffing the air before looking back at his rider with a responding headshake. No luck. Too many other smells crowding out the one he was searching for.

Hiccup pondered for a second. "Try on top of the roof, maybe it you'll get a clearer scent."

The Night Fury glanced up for a split-second before leaping up and perching himself on a roof of a small home. The wood beneath groaned in protest. Down at street level, the young Viking noticed that people had already began to wander out of their homes and were crowding at the base of the house, some gawking with wonder, while others pointing and yelling obscenities.

"Come on bud, try your best!" Hiccup urged his dragon as he noticed people scrambling back indoors for weapons. Within that fraction of a second, the dragon's head snapped into a certain direction. Without a single doubt in the young Viking's mind, he knew his Night Fury had succeeded.

Hiccup smiled. "Let's go bud."

But just before they were off again, a whistle of air screeched past the young Viking's ear. An arrow whizzed off into the distance with an incredible speed. Hiccup's head instinctively snapped down in the fear losing yet another leg, but much to his relief, the limb remained fully intact. Then, as suddenly as they had stopped, they were off once again, with the sound of tiles clattering against the ground trailing behind as they bounded from roof-to-roof. Not a moment too soon either, Hiccup thought, peeking behind his back. Many other townsfolk had just returned below with their arrows notched and aimed directly at their heads, but luckily, they were just now out of their range. A sigh of relief emerged from Hiccup.

As they sprang from house to house, Hiccup noticed something different in the movement of his dragon. Uncharacteristically, the Night Fury seemed unbalanced, leaning ever so slightly to his left side. If this was any other person, they wouldn't notice this and just assume that it was just the Night Fury's natural gait, but, with the forging of their bond, it was just natural that they began be so accustomed to each other that even the smallest abnormalities would be immediately recognized. Hiccup could only hope that it wasn't anything too serious. His eyes wandered down, and he gasped in horror. Maybe they weren't so lucky after all… Where the arrow had passed just moments ago left a trickle of blood seeping from a graze on the dragon's front limb.

"Oh gods Toothless! You're injured!"

The dragon snorted plainly. He obviously wasn't going to let such a miniscule cut get in the way of both their safety. Hiccup on the other hand, wasn't feeling as confident about his dragon's judgement about his own condition as he was, but after second look at the cut made it seem a great deal less appalling. It was just a small cut, and he was probably worrying over nothing. Toothless's overprotective tendencies were starting to rub off on him, Hiccup thought to himself. He brushed it off his shoulder as probably nothing.

The houses began to be set further and further apart from each other as they got farther and farther from their starting point, indicating that they had begun near the edge of the village. But just before they actually met the cliffs of the mountain, Hiccup's attention was snatched by a certain house, a house that was blatantly different from all the homes in the town. Unlike all the others, this home seemed to be not only designed for the sole purpose of a shelter, but rather, it seemed to have an elegance of cosiness. As they got closer, he was able to make out coloured paints that decorated the roof, and the windows looked as though they were hand-crafted, with a pattern craved into the wood along its frame. Hiccup couldn't exactly point out the exact reason but it was… for a lack of a better word, 'homey'.

"There bud?"

The Night Fury was unresponsive for a second, but then grunted lightly. Toothless quickly designated a patch of land beside the house and neared it, rearing to touch-down, but, as his front limb had weight pushed onto it for the landing, the Night Fury stumbled forward, nearly sending Hiccup flying out of the saddle if not for the loops securing him down. Toothless's expression was heavily pained, but he managed to trudge on, using his healthy leg to pick up the slack.

"Toothless, you sure you're okay? We could stop and take a break."

Toothless just shook his head and kept moving alongside the house, still using the utmost caution to keep quiet. Hiccup became increasingly worried for his best friend. Perhaps the arrow damaged more than just a mere graze? The Night Fury's motion was starting to go unsteady, sending worse and worse doubts into the young Viking's mind. Maybe he's sick? Maybe the boy had overexerted his dragon, pushing him too hard… Guilt started to seep in at the possibility.

Toothless began to slow down, with each step taking longer than the last and with a limp, making it that much harder.

"Bud, what's wrong!"

Toothless ignored Hiccup and forced himself to pull a leg after another to keep going, grunts sounding after every step, forced out because of the prickling, burning pain that was travelling up his scaly limb. After a final, struggling step the Night Fury collapsed onto the ground, unconscious, unresponsive. Hiccup, in a state of panic, unbuckled and kneeled in front of his dragon, shaking him furiously in the hopeless attempt to snap him out of whatever that was going on.

"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled, disregarding any further intention to keep stealthy. Nothing. No response. Just the heavy pants of his breathing. "No, no…"

This was definitely not 'nothing.'

"I see your companion has fallen asleep."

Hiccup looked up from the unexpected words and there, a few metres in front of them, was a meager old woman, peering at them with piercing grey eyes past the nearly white hair hanging at her sides in braids. She stood with a stoop, and a small bent stick was held firmly under her hand, keeping her balance steady. She stared at them with a solemn expression, displaying no fear, nor distain for the two.

"What?" Hiccup shot back, feeling almost insulted at what seemed to be a morbid joke at his dragon's expense.

"You see that cut there on the Night Fury's leg?" She pointed with a feeble hand. Hiccup didn't bother to look over, he already saw everything that he needed to.

The old woman continued. "See how the wound has a slightly different color than the surrounding?"

That caught the young Viking's concern. He turned to the area and realized that the blood surrounding the wound was actually a slight bit darker than a splotch of it that had streaked across the scales, presumably following the path of the arrow. But what was it? If it's not blood, according to the woman, it had to had come from the arro- Is it… oh gods no… Hiccup's eyes widened as he came to a sudden realization at what it was. It wasn't blood.

"It's poison."

That single, blunt word confirmed his worst fears and sent him into a spiral of horror. His eyes wandered back to his dragon's. He could still see pain in the dragon's expression, even while he was unconscious.

"Potent, fast, kills a man in less than a minute. Aye, created it myself."

Hiccup threw her a look of disbelief at what he was hearing. Is this woman blatantly explaining to him that she is the person who created this… this horrid substance that had sent his dragon into so much pain and agony and was now possibly going to kill him?

He shook his head slightly and said. "Who, who are you?"

"I am Eir, the village healer."

"So I guess even the village healer has turned into a cold, dark killer and still able to keep the title of a 'healer'."

The statement didn't seem to change her stance in anyway and she responded, indifferently as though she was expecting such a curt return. "You must understand, my boy, that creating a poison and actually using it on a living creature are two entirely different notions." The healer stood, shifting weight from one leg to the other. "I created the poison on the sole intention of keeping men alive, and for self-defence, if the situation should ever arise. But, how it is actually used is fully out of my control. If a blacksmith crafts a sword and it turns towards one of his countrymen, is the blacksmith to blame?"

Hiccup dropped his gaze. Yes, her argument was totally valid in that the creator of a weapon is not always in control of how it is used, but, regardless, she had a part in the poisoning of his Night Fury. His expression fell further grim upon looking back down at his fallen dragon.

"Now, now lad. On the contrary to what you have been through, the gods have actually bent fate in your favour on quite a few occasions."

Hiccup scoffed. Luck wasn't in their favour, it never was after landing here on this island… Both dragon and rider suffered injuries, and both were barely healed before new threats and new injuries were instilled. How could luck, and how could the will of the gods had ever come into play and still ended with this terrible outcome?

"You know, if Mary and Oliver hadn't found you, you probably would've been dead within a couple of days. A stroke of luck and pure chance they said."

The young Viking had already known that it was fairly, no, more so a complete fluke for him to be found in the wilderness by two couples that just happened to be strolling through. It doesn't matter though. The luck ran out here-

"And, this coming from a healer who practiced for nearly two generations, every poison has a cure. And, there is still time."

Hiccup's head was lifted by a new light of hope, and he met with the healer's eyes. She responded with a warm smile.

"Your Night Fury is not a mere human. The poison will take a lengthier time to take its full toll than if it were actually in you. You should be thankful." She gave Hiccup a deep, and possibly even accusing stare. The young Viking avoided eye contact out of new, and unexplained guilt. When he brought up the courage to look back up, the healer had disappeared, leaving Hiccup once again, alone with his thoughts, and an unconscious Night Fury at his side.

A small gleam caught the corner of his eye, bringing his attention to the muzzle that was still attached to Toothless's snout. Probably best to get it off, Hiccup thought, not knowing of a better way to aid his dragon. He reached over and tugged on the metal rim that looped around the dragon's neck, of which provided the bonding strength for the whole contraption. On closer examination, the young Viking noticed how the lock was not as tightly secured as he would've expected a dragon constraining muzzle to be. It rattled upon being shaken and it had a little bit of give as though one of the bolts had been damaged. Although saying so, the muzzle was still too tightly fixed for him to break it by brute force. But even if he should attempt to pull on the muzzle with his whole weight, it would probably do more harm to Toothless than good. Hiccup sighed in exasperation. An idea popped into his mind. His hand found its way around his coat, and leggings, furiously patting down every possible compartment.

"Come on knife, where'd I put it?" He checked every pocket, every pouch, and even his belt but nothing of the sort. He groaned in his stupidity. Again, another potentially valuable item was left back at the lake.

Suddenly, an aged hand appeared in of the young Viking's face, held openly to show its hold. On the palm was a small pile of what seemed to be sand mixed with crushed leaves.

"Take this and rub it onto the wound. The mix will go into the bloodstream and nullify the poison."

Should he trust her? After all, she is a member of this village, the village that had caged him up, and not to mention, viciously wanting to kill his Night Fury on a ridiculous claim. But then again, she was the one who sent the herbal drink that had done so well to heal him…

Reluctantly, Hiccup held out his hand underneath hers and the pile began to fall downwards like water, through the opening slits between her fingers. Grain by grain, and leaf by leaf drained down, before the last bit fell into the palm of his hand, prompting him to clamp his hand shut, as though it was some rare ancient treasure. Hiccup leaned over to the Night Fury's injured limb, and slowly brought his hand closer and closer to the wound, using extensive care to not lose a single, vital, grain.

His hand stopped just below the wound, before he abruptly flipped it, smothering the mix onto the bloody graze. As he started to rub, the pile started to feel less and less present, while none of it actually fell onto the ground. The last grain and leaf dissolved, and the young Viking pulled back his hand. Hiccup glanced down and immediately felt queasy at the sight of the unmistakable red stain of his Night Fury's blood that was soaked onto his palm. The silence grew, and no body shifted. He prayed, prayed that this would work, and that this remedy wouldn't just further harm his dragon. Perhaps the teen was too late? Perhaps he should've immediately asked her for help, instead of questioning her motive-

A muscle twitched. Hiccup's eyes trained onto the spot, making sure he wasn't seeing things. He held his breath as his heart boomed at a boisterous volume in his ear. All at once, the black mass started to shift and groan before two large green eyes opened, staring at him from the front.

"Howya feeling bud?" The young Viking managed to say, unable to expression his relief in any other fashion.

The Night Fury groaned as he moved his injured paw timidly, seeming to expect that it would emanate pain. The dragon's eyes widened in curiosity as he tested the limb further, then realized that miraculously, the searing pain that had brought him down just minutes ago was gone. Toothless quickly got onto his feet, and wiggled his injured leg.

Hiccup patted the dragon's neck. "Better huh?"

Toothless responded with a nuzzle, burying his nose under the boy's arm.

"Alright now Toothless." Hiccup laughed, giving the Night Fury a scratch on the side of his head. "Come on bud, we've gotta go-"

"You're not going anywhere." The woman stood in front of the two, except this time showing a bit more assertion in her demeanour. "Not at least until this boy has his cuts properly cared for."

Toothless, now just realizing that there was actually a third party in their presence, snarled and paced forward, bringing Hiccup along from under his arm.

"Whoa there bud, she's the one who help me and you get better." Hiccup said, pushing against the dragon's snout in order to keep him from clawing down the old woman.

The dragon was not convinced. In his eyes, this aged human could not be trusted and was deemed a threat, as would most of the villagers by now.

"Toothless…" Hiccup warned in a rising voice. "Remember, she provided the substance that made your leg better." This seemed to pacify the Night Fury slightly, but he was not one to be caught off guard.

Toothless stepped back, but at the same time still keeping his eyes trained on the woman. The healer nodded towards the rear of the house, and started walking off. As they followed, Toothless jogged up in front of Hiccup, nearly shoving him out of the way to forcefully create a barrier between his rider and this woman whom he had no trust for. Hiccup sighed in annoyance at his overprotective dragon.

The inside of the house was no different than the exterior, it wasn't just barren walls as he'd in the village, or more specifically, Ellen's home; it had paints, decorations, and other things placed with the intention to give the house a more warm feeling. The healer lead them into a main room, where a lit center fireplace was bordered by a short wall of stones.

"Sit down here, on this stool." The woman gestured.

Hiccup compliantly sat down, and the dragon settled close beside, clearly still keen on keeping a watchful eye over this new environment. The aged woman again, left the room and quickly after returned with a wooden board. Resting on it was a jar, a rag, and a small bowl with a lid covering. She hobbled over to the young Viking, and placed the tray on a second stool beside him. She held up the rag and dipped it in the jar, before dabbing it around the cut on Hiccup's forehead. The young Viking yelped from the stinging of the rag touching the wound. The Night Fury stood solemnly beside, on edge. The healer then washed away the last dried smudge of blood and she went on to picking up the bowl.

"You must be starving lad, here, have something to eat."

Hiccup was about to politely decline the offer, but just then, his stomach rumbled, causing him to reconsider. He quickly decided that the temptation of hunger was too much, and he diligently took hold of the bowl. The young Viking carefully lifted up the lid and inside, he recognized as some kind of broth, with chunks of meat and vegetables floating about. The smell was positively uplifting. Carefully chosen herbs were emanating their scent, along with the sizable chunks of meat, looking as enticing as nothing he'd ever seen before. The young Viking brought the bowl closer to his mouth, and with a wooden spoon handed to him by the healer, he eagerly ate, savouring every bit of the exquisite soup. The taste was in no way, contrary to the smell.

Spoon by spoon, chunk by chunk, the broth was quickly gobbled down by the young Viking. He returned the woman her wooden bowl and gave his customary 'thank you'. The old woman bowed slightly on recognition and left for the kitchen. She promptly returned, and although without the board, she came back instead with a gleaming knife held loosely in her hand. Toothless caught sight of this and bounded up from his sitting position, confronting the woman with an angry growl.

"Take this, and try to pick the lock with the end." The woman said to Hiccup while ignoring the snarling Night Fury in front. "Normally I would, but your Night Fury here doesn't seem to take foreign people too kindly."

The young Viking grasped the knife and examined it, before looking back up at the aged woman. "Why are you helping us?"

"Viking history has always depicted the dragons as their sworn enemies, simply by the act of nature. And as a young lass, I believed it. Times then were like now, rough, famines popped up here and there, and of course, the usual burning of houses. Surely people began to develop a burning hatred for them. It's a perfectly expected response."

"But what does that have to do-"

"Shush, I'm not finished." The healer continued. "As a young lass, my mother and father told me dozens of stories of how Vikings valiantly fought to save our town from starvation. How generations of Vikings were sent out into the sea, hoping to end the pain and suffering once and for all. But alas, no one ever succeeded."

Hiccup shifted in his stool. He could sense how this story was going to end. It felt as though he was going to get caught and this was just to rile him up for it.

"But, one day, during a raid, I was out in the woods, gathering herbs for medicine when I heard a squawking coming from the bushes. It wasn't the squawking of a bird, it sounded more helpless, saddened even. So I walked up to a bush, pushed away a few loose branches and there in the center, was a little green dragon. A Terrible Terror as its called."

A wash of relief ran through him, but he didn't move, doing his best to hide it.

The woman's expression started to saddened to the thought, as though something was sending her a feeling of dread as the events were recalled. But she swallowed and moved on. "Naturally, I leapt back in fear, afraid that it would attack me as they were said to do so. But, as I got closer, I noticed how the poor thing had its legs trapped in a root. I didn't know what to do. It was a dragon, the sworn enemy of Vikings, but in my eyes, it was just a poor helpless animal. So I reached in, and gently pulled him out. The thing was like the size of my palm, quite small for a Terror I thought. But, as soon as it realized what I had done for it, it cooed, rubbing its head against my chest. Quickly later, it turned away, assumingly wanting to go home. So I threw it up and on its way, but, it fell right back down. I ran towards it and then I nearly cried at the sight. The poor dragon had only half its wing with nothing left on the other but a tiny stump. It kept trying to leap up and fly, but it never could. I felt so much pity for it, and being a healer whose life's purpose is to make people feel better, I had no reason not to. So I brought him home, keeping him for months by feeding him table scraps along with vegetables I bought from the market. He was like family to me."

"But one day, the chief unexpectedly visited my home. At the time, my mother and father were on a peacekeeping trip to another tribe so I had been put in charge of the village healing. I heard him come up the stairs so quickly I hid the Terror under a pile of bed sheets. The man came to ask about his dying brother, and if anything could be done. But he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed a little green snout, sticking out of the pile. He ripped the bed sheets off and there it was. A dragon, sleeping soundly on my bed. I always assumed that everyone would be furious upon learning that I was hiding and feeding a dragon. And I was right. The man was furious. But what I never could've foreseen is how he'd taken it to the arena and according to the guards, he killed it. He pulled out his sword and slit it's throat in cold blood."

This made Hiccup's skin crawl, but, this made him wonder. What if his own father had found Toothless before he did? Would he have given his Night Fury the same fate? Hiccup felt sickened at the thought. "But wait, how come you didn't try to reason with him?"

"He never bothered to ask 'what is it doing there.' No, stared at me for a second before grabbing the little terror by the head and walked off. Later, I was confined to my room for a week and was retold how dragons were horrible, emotion exploiting monsters over and over. Never after that week, did I ever speak of the Terror again. If only I could've told them, and not been such a coward…" The aged woman sat down on the stool and sighed in exhaustion. "When your dragon was ordered to be executed in the arena during the town meeting, I saw the look you gave your Night Fury. I saw a deep bond between you two so I assumed you had figured out the same thing I did, that dragons were not all monsters."

"Is that why you helped us? So we could change your village?"

"No. This village's state of mind cannot be altered, no matter how hard you try. They've seen many hardships my boy, and their anger and hatred cannot be moved by a simple explanation. All the other villages as well for that matter. Now, what I wanted to accomplish by aiding you is to prevent, prevent another killing of a possibly, kind, and intelligent soul with the potential for empathy that could very well match our own. So take this knife, get rid of that horrible contraption and be on your way."

The young Viking had always thought that he was the first to befriend a dragon and realise their potential for loyalty and care. But the more he thought, the more it began to soak in. Dragons didn't just turn benevolent around him, they always were, most likely as a part of their innate instincts. Although he wasn't the first to realise this hidden trait, he was still the first to change an entire society, for the better with this knowledge. Hiccup stood up and turned to Toothless, holding the knife close to the lock. He twisted it slightly around the keyhole, but with no luck. He tilted the steel knife by a slight degree and a click sounded, before the whole contraption fell to the ground with an incredibly loud thang. That did the trick.

Toothless, now overjoyed that he was now freed from the confinements of a muzzle, nudged his head against the boy's chest, lapping at his face with happiness.

"What is your name lad?"

Hiccup wasn't expecting that question, but he guessed that at least she was able to be trusted. The young Viking pushed the eager lack snout away. "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third."

"Haddock? Son of Stoic, the chief of Berk?"

"Yep, that's my dad."

"Ah, I remember him. Been on a trading run to Berk a couple of years ago. Fine man, but when speaking of dragons, one does not want to get in his way." She laughed. "So how is Stoic these days, unknowing that his son is hiding a Night Fury behind his back."

"Toothles- Toothless, stop. Well, everything's alright now and Berk has come to like the-" Hiccup stopped, just now realizing what he had just revealed. Toothless stepped. The woman gave Hiccup an incredulous stare. "What do you mean?" She said a stern voice.

"Erm… Did I say alright? Well I meant…" Hiccup stopped. Should he tell her? What's the worst that could come of that? She's already realised how dragons could be pacified… "Well, our village has… Accepted, the dragons and we now… Work together to gather food and do, uh chores." Hiccup awkwardly began.

Hiccup opened his mouth and was about to resume explaining, until an odd sound caught his ear. It was quiet, an almost, murmuring sound, but it was there. Toothless' ear flap twitched in the direction of the sound. Clearly, it was not just the young Viking who was hearing it. The sound gradually got louder until voices could be picked out from the murmuring. The old woman stood up and made her way towards the front door window, where she glanced out. Without taking a single glance back, she said "Go they're coming. And if your intentions are to leave town, use the tunnel. It was dug out through the mountain ahead in the search for ore, but now its seldom remembered by anyone. The entrance is probably covered by undergrowth, but there's still the chance that the sign still remains to mark it. It would be your best bet if your intentions are to leave this town unharmed."

"Wait, how do you know about the cave? Aren't children the only ones who knew about it?"

"I was once too, an innocent, carefree child. Now go."

Hiccup didn't need more encouragement. The young Viking rushed to the door along with his Night Fury and scrambled to jump on. Hiccup looped the rings to the saddle, and snapped his prosthetic into place. And with a final tap on the dragon's neck, the two disappeared in a flash of black and brown. The young Viking couldn't help but look back in curiosity. The healer was standing beside her back door, looking at them as she usually did, calm, neutral. But in her eyes, he could see something different, something that wasn't previously there.

Hope.

5,000 words, wow. Well, it needed to be done. Things needed to be said and events needed to have taken place.

And after a month of a long-awaited update, I hope this was worth it. So please review and answer the question above; my writing style. Has it changed? Yes, no? If so, for the better or worse. (I don't care if its criticism. Criticism is important for a writer, whether negative or positive.)