Synergy: May be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.

Arguably, the best word to describe the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless.

As usual, please review this chapter, it heavily motivates me and it gives me a good sense of how you feel the plot or how my writing is. So, please review, it doesn't take long yet it yields so many benefits.

Oh yeah, in this story, I imagined Hiccup as 14-15, just for reference.

Chapter 15:

"There they ar'! Get 'em!" Cried a voice from the approaching swarm of outraged villagers. Bows and spears were raised, and the townsfolk wielding them took aim.

Hiccup glanced back. He knew what was coming. He did not want his dragon to be hit with another arrow. Hiccup closed his eyes and listened, ignoring the bustle of the grass under his dragon's feet, the wind, everything. The single, tell-tale sound. The strumming of a bowstring…

There.

Hiccup's eyes snapped open. "Jump bud!" At that exact second, the Night Fury leapt up at an incredible height, and the two looked down as the arrows below harmlessly passed by. At the apex of their jump, Toothless spun until they were facing the crowd. A quick collection of gas and a blue fireball discharged from the dragon's mouth. Villagers screamed as they dove out of Night Fury's attack. A dazzling explosion of blue and orange erupted from a newly formed crater just in front of where the mob previously stood. The Night Fury had missed the crowd entirely.

The young Viking knew his dragon's reputation of being the marksman that he is and this was not an exception of his ability. Though the attack had not managed to hit a single person, it was still aimed with perfect precision, thought Hiccup. Far enough to not harm anybody, yet close enough for them to break their ranks and fall into a bought of chaos. Hiccup hated these people, but at the same time, he didn't want to harm any one of them. They were just… misinformed, he reasoned. The dragon had clearly sensed this and respected his rider's morals, despite how he disagreed with it in every aspect.

The two spun back forward and touched back down onto land, resuming their beeline for the mountain.

"Left or right bud?" Hiccup asked his dragon. Toothless snorted, leaving the all important decision entirely up to the young Viking. The mountain was nearing fast and a decision was needed.

"Umm… Left."

Toothless began sharply turning into a half-arc before- "No, right!" Hiccup indecisively second-guessed. The dragon groaned and veered in the other direction.

"Slow down a bit bud, it's hard to see anything in detail at this speed."

Toothless did just that. The dragon dropped his speed down to a more jog-like pace as he ran parallel to the mountainside. The mountainside wasn't a gradual slope with rolling foothills here and there as he would've liked for spotting a possibly hidden object. Instead, it was a sharp incline that led up to a high apex, a point where it would hurt to even try to glance up that steep of an angle. Bushes and undergrowth littered the slope, and bordered where they tread. Hiccup hoped that his 'luck' as the healer called, still held. Who knows where the cave was, it could even be higher up the mountain than where he was presently travelling along, or even worse, it could be in the other direction altogether! The young Viking kept his eyes open, searching for even the smallest indication of a cave.

Hiccup's eyes caught a gleam of light on scales as his dragon's ear flap twitched. "Hear something bud?"

The young Viking listened closely, and he heard something odd too. It was somewhat off in the distance, quiet, but was still able to be heard and distinguished from the rustle of grass below. It was actually coming from behind them.

"Toothless, stop for a moment."

The dragon diligently obeyed and swung to his side, slowing the two into a halt almost immediately.

Hiccup went further into analyzing the curious sound. It was almost a chirping sound, high-pitched, sounding… enthusiastic to say the least. Laughter, Hiccup realised. Perhaps it was the villagers, attempting to head them off? No, that wouldn't be possible; how would they know they would go in this direction? And plus, why would they be laughing when their goal is to hunt and kill an 'evil' dragon that has 'mind-controlled' an innocent person? And it was rather high-pitched to be fully grown Vikings guffawing. Children maybe? Or possibly kids his age who knew about the cave, as Ellen told him, and were playing in it? A flimsy hope, Hiccup realised, but its all he's got.

"Follow that sound bud."

A grunt of acknowledgement from the Night Fury before he leapt into the opposite direction and flew off in a flash of black. The laughter had ceased, but the Night Fury still kept the general direction of the sound embedded solidly into his mind, enabling him to keep a bee-line heading.

Hiccup's hopes were brutally dashed as the dragon began veering off the side of the mountain and back into the town. This area wasn't as populated with houses as before back at the Elder's home, because just a hundred meters or so down in the other direction marked the end of the settlement. They were actually well on the farthest outskirts of town, noted Hiccup.

But, maybe these people haven't heard the news about him, seeing how they're so far from everything…? It's worth a shot. But if things turn sour, well, there's always Toothless.

The dragon halted behind a small home, with a whoosh of air marking their stop. Still curious as to who was creating the sound, the young Viking quietly dismounted and crept along the wall and to the corner of the house where he stopped to face his dragon, raising a finger to his lips, and whispering a reticent 'shhhhhh.' Hiccup leaned over and poked past the edge with a single eye. The laughter was definitely not from adults he saw; it was actually a small group of adolescents all approximately his age, playing in the grass, jumping around, and tackling each other.

"Toothless, stay here." Hiccup whispered.

The young Viking walked as nonchalantly as possible around the corner, approaching the group. His approach was gradually noticed by the youth, and one-by-one, the activities of the bunch began to cease, with more and more odd stares being aimed directly at the young Viking.

"Umm… Do any of you know something about a tunnel?" Hiccup started.

Blank stares.

"Erm, sorry… My name is Hiccup, and I came here on… A trading ship from Berk…" Hiccup cringed slightly upon the realization of what he just said, mentally slapping himself for saying the name of his home, despite knowing perfectly well how his father still wanted it kept as a secret. He continued. "And I heard that there was a cave-"

"What's that for?" One in the group interrupted, walking forward and pulling on the metal loops that extended below his coat.

"It's um, for training."

In the corner of his eye just off the far edge of the building, Hiccup noticed a set of large green dragon eyes peering at him curiously. Thinking quickly, he placed his hand on the wall of the house and leaned on it, rubbing his leg and pretending that his prosthetic was simply, 'flaring up' in the attempt to hide Toothless for as long as possible.

"So how'd you leg?" Another asked, gesturing to Hiccup's prosthetic.

"I killed a dragon." Hiccup replied plainly. Although this was a fairly vague response, it was still more information than he would've liked to have given to these strangers.

The group began crowding closer to the young Viking, oohing and aahing in admiration and respect for what appeared to be to them, an impressive feat.

The shorter of the bunch walked forward, crossing his arms and displaying a look of high pride. "When the dragons dare to show their ugly, putrid faces back here, I'm going to kill them all! Slaying dragons left and right, that's what I do!" He said, wildly waving a stick around for added effect.

A girl scoffed. "As if! All you do is cause trouble!"

"Can't even lift an axe." Another added, sending the group into a jeering bout of laughter. The youth's pride deflated like an air sac, and he stepped back, dropping his gaze.

Hiccup felt unusually empathetic for this particular person.

"So what kind of dragon did you kill? A Gronkle? A Timberjack?" One of the girl asked, giddy with interest.

"Uhm…"

"A Terrible Terror? A Night Fury?"

"Yes, Yes! A Night Fury." Hiccup answered absentmindedly. A low-pitch groan entered his ears, coming from behind.

Apprehensive, Hiccup quickly scanned the group's expressions, and much to his relief, no one had noticed the groan because, now, their previous looks of admiration and awe began turning into the assertive expression of suspicion and incredulousness.

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second. I've seen grown Vikings twice the size of you fall to a Nadder, and you say you've killed a Night Fury? No offence kid, but you're kind of scrawny…"

"Well obviously, I didn't do it purely by hand. I built this contraption you see…" Hiccup's eyes wandered over and met with the outcasted teen. The youth shot him an odd look crossed somewhere between curiosity and intense absorption to what the young Viking, as though the thing he was explaining could be replicated in some way to be life-changing.

Hiccup glanced around and saw puzzled expressions. He realised that he'd just lost his train of thought.

"Where was I…? Oh yes, the uh, contraption. It fired a bola directly at the Night Fury while it was flying… Bringing him down, where I killed it by slitting his- I mean its throat! Because you know, dragons are obvious 'its' and not people…" Hiccup awkwardly went on.

"What about your leg?" Another asked with a clear tone of cynicism.

"Hm? Oh, yes! The leg… Uh, when I was about to kill… It, it struggled and managed to swipe at my leg before I tumbled forward and got a swipe at it… With my knife." Hiccup felt a little guilty for envisioning himself killing his dragon…

A few of the youth shrugged, feeling satisfied with his story, but others not so much. The largest of the bunch stepped forward and slung his arm around Hiccup's shoulder. The young Viking bent forward under the new unexpected weight. "He's cool guys. I mean, come on, that's like the awesomest battle-scar ever. How else would someone get something like that? You can still even see the claw-marks on his leg!"

Hiccup instinctively looked down and saw the scratches he got from Toothless from back in the woods. Hiccup forced out a few chuckles.

The larger youth turned back to Hiccup. "Come on, we'll show you the cave." He took his arm off, and started walking off, with the rest of the group following suit. One or two nodded to Hiccup as they passed by, while others gave him the expected look of suspicion.

"Are you coming or not?" The larger Viking asked.

"My leg is acting up. You know… Fake limbs and such..." Hiccup leaned on the wall with one hand while crossing his bad leg, resting the prosthetic on the other. "I'll catch up with you in a second!"

The larger Viking shrugged and walked off. The final youth, the ridiculed one, ambled by and looked at Hiccup inquisitively before picking up his pace and catching up to the rest.

In his mind, Hiccup was smiling brightly with glee. Maybe this might actually work.

This chapter was really short, I'm sorry, but I'm kind of out of time. The day I publish this is the day I'm leaving on vacation for six weeks. Sorry guys. I'll try my best to write things there on my pad, but nothing is guaranteed.

So, keep hopeful as I am not dead as some may believe out of habit. If you haven't done so, also read my one-shot. It's about Toothless meeting a cat under odd circumstances. And remember, PLEASE review. Helps out a lot.

…

What, why are you still here? Fine. Here is some bonus stuff to keep you happy until I get back.

Soft bouts of sobbing rung through the Night Fury's ears, as Hiccup slowly approached the Night Fury, slouched forward with one hand held up over his eyes. The young Viking unexpectedly stopped, before dropping onto his knees, snivelling, and sniffling while drops of tears dripped from his hand and falling to the cold, hard ground.

The Night Fury saw this horrible show of despondency and trotted over, nudging at his rider soothingly.

No response.

Not being one to give up on his rider, Toothless came closer and laid down around the young Viking. He placed his tail around the front of Hiccup, bringing him in closer in the effort to pacify his sadness. The Night Fury could almost see, and fully feel the degree of melancholy and sorrow his rider was clearly showing, and… It saddened him.

The dragon laid his head near the boy's shoulder, crooning and rubbing at his arm with much affection. The sniffles and sobbing began to simmer down, as Hiccup turned to face Toothless with bloodshot eyes.

A soft, un-Hiccupy voice was the result. "Dad… Dad passed away…"

Hiccup dropped his gaze and tears started flowing again. Toothless brought the boy closer and shielded him under his wing, effectively placing him a safe-zone where he could let all his emotions come out without the fear of judgement, nor the horrendous realization that some things couldn't be fixed with the simple use of a hammer and molten metal.

-A gift for those who actually read my senseless ramblings that are so-called the 'author's notes.'